The Funeral: The Beginning or the End?

Jake Winters and young Peter Stevenson had been together for six moths. Christmas morning 2001 was Peter’s first Christmas morning ever. While living in Slippery Gulch, Peter never heard of Christmas or Santa Claus. Once he learned who Santa was, Peter was certain Santa would never visit him, since he never had before.

Christmas morning, Peter was shocked beyond belief when he found the Christmas tree surrounded by gifts. But Jake, Betty and Jerry (Jake’s sister and brother-in-law) were also shocked. Here was a letter to Peter where the snacks had been, written by none of the adults, and a special gift in his stocking that was not there the night before. The mysteries surrounding Peter continued, but the Christmas of 2001 was special for all.

With Christmas over, as with all cross-country truckers, it was back on the road for Jake and Peter. Dead ahead lay June 30, 2002, the scheduled date of Peter’s new funeral. His first funeral in 1901, in the wicked mining town in Montana had been a mockery of a Christian burial.
Now Jake would give Peter a worthy Christian funeral. A beautiful stone honoring Peter would be engraved, and his bones would be reinterred in a modern casket. But repeatedly Jake prayed that Peter would be allowed to remain with him.

A week before the funeral, Peter himself became concerned. He worried what would happen to him at the time. Would he be allowed to remain with Jake, or would he be force to return to the grave? It was a question only the future would reveal.