She's trapped in a lie to provide for her family.
How can God still love and bless her?
Ginger Snap is a story of a girl realizing her worth, both in the eyes of God and to the man who is drawn to her.
I've always loved the play, As You Like It, by William Shakespeare. Borrowing the idea of a girl forced to dress as a boy, I created a heroine, Ginger, who is forced to pose as her dead brother. For the first time in a long while, she is comfortable and well-fed--all because she's lying.
When Ginger overhears the plans of thieves, she runs for her life. Just when she'd hoped to appear at a dance as a girl. She'd like the new lawyer in town, Theo, to see her as a woman.
Will the lawyer be able to rescue her if she can't save herself? Can she trust the Lord to protect her even though she's broken a commandment?
Here's a short snippet:
With three cows to milk and two dozen hens, Ginger and
Willard took milk, butter, and eggs into town twice a week. This allowed them
to have luxuries such as sugar, something she’d rarely tasted at home in
Tennessee.
At times, Ginger felt like an Israelite entering the
land of milk and honey. With the plentiful food, she’d begun to round out. The
bindings became a necessity now as her bosom developed. Ironically, she daily
became more womanly even while Ginger pretended to be a man.
Things had never been better. So why did it eat at
something deep inside of her?
Life, she was discovering, was funny that way. Her ma
had taught her that liars and cheaters didn’t prosper, yet she and the others
had never been better. And it was all because she was misrepresenting herself
to the lawyer and the entire population of Kearney Junction each time she went
into town.
Step Pappy, scamp that he was, had managed to set up a
still soon after they arrived at the farm. He’d used the extra corn stored on
one side of the small granary to cook up his mash. Since then, boys from town
began visiting to drink and carouse after dark. It was another reason Wiley
Snap was so jolly these days. He had a new bunch of young men to corrupt.
At home in the Hollow, she’d seldom went to town. Her
family didn’t attend church, and she and her brother rarely attended school. Especially
not after they were eight or nine. They could read enough and cipher some. It
would get them by. At least, that’s what her father figured.
The family did own a large family bible, something Wiley
Snap also sold in Camden. Ginger’s mother used it to further her children’s
reading. Guy fidgeted and pleaded to go outside during those lessons.
Not Ginger. She read the scriptures faithfully. Verses
she’d memorized came back to her lately. It was one more reason she knew that
her deception was wrong.
