Helen heard a cry for help. As she neared the river, the cry grew louder. A small crowd gathered at the iced edge. Looking out, she could see a child had broken through the ice into the freezing water. People had their phones out calling 911 or taking video, but no one seem inclined to actually help the little girl. As she cried out again for help, Helen did not think twice. She wrapped a dead vine around her waist and went out onto the thin ice. It broke. The freezing water seeped into her very bones. That did not matter. She was going to get to that child. People on the shore seemed more inclined to help now. Two bigger men held the vine as Helen broke at the ice with her raw red fingers. The child seemed to rally as she got closer. She seemed more willing to hold on, and then, without warning, under the water she went. Helen did not even think about it, under the water she went too, swimming as fast as her arms and legs would let her. She felt hair and grabbed it. Kicking with all of her might she broke the surface of the water. "I have her." She yelled, and that was all it took for her to feel herself being pulled in. As they were pulling her she was pulling the little girl's head up out of the water. Helen looked at the child's lips. They were blue and her face looked lifeless. As they pulled her onto land, Helen rolled the girl on her back and breathed into her mouth. She was just getting ready to press on the child's chest when the girl made a gurgle and spit out water from her lungs. The child made a small cry and then a louder one. Helen looked at her, but something was not right. She looked like a cloud was around her. She looked harder and blinked to clear her vision. Why was everything so fuzzy?

Helen shook her head one more time, before passing out.

Helen woke up to the sound of her mother's voice. "Come now my sweet girl. Wake up." "Mom, what happened?" Helen asked, even though her mouth felt like cotton.

"You did, Helen. You went into the river to save a little girl. They said you drug her out, breathed into her mouth and then passed out." Ester answered gently.

It came back to Helen then. "Is she ok? No one did anything. They just watched and took video."

"Her name is Lidia, and she is going to be fine thanks to you." Ester assured Helen as she patted her cold hand.

"I was so scared for her. She was so alone and so afraid. I just could not stand and watch." Helen said softly.

Helen's mother sighed deeply, "I know, but you could have been killed. Your father would have had a heart attack if he were still alive and had seen you do something so dangerous. How many times in the past has he told you the current can take you before you can help?"

"I know; that is why I tied a vine around my waist. It seemed sturdy enough to hold and it did." Helen's voice shook with exhaustion.

"Helen, I know you think I am overreacting, but you need to remember that you are my baby. I thought I had lost you when I saw you on the news." Ester said her voice raw with emotion.

"Wait, what? You saw me on the news?" Helen asked.

"Yes, the news. You had just gone under to grab her when they started airing it live from the news chopper. You were on the screen long enough for me to see it was you and then you were gone. I thought that would be the last image I had of you." Her mother sniffed.

"I'm sorry mom. I did not realize you had seen it. I can understand now how upset you would be seeing that." Helen whispered.

"They are here you know? They want to talk to you." Ester said softly.

"Who is here, mom?" Helen's face showed her confusion.

"The news media is here. It seems you are a bit of a hero. People uploaded the rescue to the internet and everything." Ester brushed another stray hair from Helen's forehead.

Helen tried to take a calming breath. She hated attention. She suddenly felt drowsier. Her mother's look of concern told her she looked more tired too.

"Rest now my girl. We can deal with the news crews when you are feeling better." Ester said as she softly touched her daughter's forehead.

Helen felt her mother's warm hand on her forehead again as she dozed back off to sleep.

Logan Day was on the phone with his mother. He rolled his eyes as she continued to express the concern she had for him. He had grown up in a small town along the Susquehanna River. He went to church every Sunday morning and night with his parents as did most of the town. He loved his mom, but knew she had a very specific view of how things should be. He did not share that view. In the years since he had left that small town, he had acquired fame and fortune. Many things he grew up with stayed with him others fell along the path. He was not by any means a playboy, but he did enjoy female companionship from time to time. He donated to charity and did his part to help the poor. He was just getting ready to defend himself when he heard his mother gasp, "Dear God!"

Alarm rose up within him. "Are you ok, Mom?"

"I just turned on the news. A little girl has broken through the ice. She is not going to make it much longer……Dear God no!" she gasped again.

"What, Mom, what is going on?" His alarm continued to grow.

"I know that young lady. My friend's daughter just jumped into the water after the child. Her name is Helen. Logan, she will never make it. Wait! It looks like she has a rope or something tied to her. Some men are holding it." His mother continued to give play by play. She gasped again. "The child let go of the ice, she went under." His mother was sobbing now. "Helen went under! Where is she? I see the rope. Where is she?"

"Mom, please, you need to calm down. Turn it off. Wait to hear what happens." Logan started to plead with real concern.

"I see Helen! She has the child! They are pulling her in." Elaina said excitedly.

"Mom, turn it off! You can't get this excited." Logan pleaded again.

"They made it to shore. Helen looks fine. She looks like she is giving CPR." Elaina ignored her son's plea.

"Please, Mom…" Logan pleaded again.

"OK, it is off now" his mother said. She sounded out of breath.

"Are you ok?" Logan asked softly.

"I am; my heart is beating slower now. I just had to see her make it to shore. I love Helen. She is special." Elaina said softly.

"That Helen girl should have known better than to go into that icy water. Didn't her dad teach her anything?" Logan said with anger.

"He did. You knew him, Chester Kiser. With Helen it does not matter. If you knew her, you would know she would give her life before she watched a child die." Elaina defended her young friend.

"She sounds just plain stupid to me. Did she even know the child?" Logan's voice was angry.

"I don't know if she did or not. It still would not have made a difference. She is not afraid to die, you know. She is a Christian. There is something about her relationship with Christ that touches people around her. It is like she truly sees Him as all she needs." His mother finished softly.

"Are you going to be ok?" Logan changed the subject. He did not know why, but hearing his mom talk about this girl made him more uncomfortable then when she talked to him about where he was in his Christian walk.

"I am fine now. Thank you, Son, I love you." Elaina assured him.

"I love you too." Logan hung up the phone. His mind trying to picture a girl that would give no thought to herself and save a person in need. He wondered if he would have stepped up and done something. He hung his head a bit ashamed as he realized the answer was probably no. If he had to be honest, he could not do it because he knew he was not ready to die. That thought gave him, for just a moment, pause.

Logan lay in his bed wide awake. It had been a week since the phone call with his mother. In that week he had gotten to see the face of the Helen his mother talked so fondly of. He studied her when she was on the news doing interviews. He still looked up the rescue on the internet. He still was angry with her. He did not understand why. He just was.

Punching his pillow, he rolled over and tried to close his eyes, but all he saw were the blue eyes of Helen. He allowed his mind to go to the interview he had seen the day before. Helen just seemed so uncomfortable, her pale face framed by long blond hair. A part of him found satisfaction at her discomfort. He did not want to think about why that would be. He knew why he felt that way. His mom was right. There was just something so genuine about her that you could not help but like her. He knew what that was and it made him mad. It was the same anger he got when his mom would say she was praying for him. If he had to be honest, he had more anger at Helen. He had an intense anger he did not understand. With his mom, he got annoyed. He knew she loved him, so he could never get truly angry. With Helen, it just got under his skin. Why? He punched the pillow again and rolled over. It is not like she was different from the girls he grew up with. It never bothered him seeing them. So why did it bother him so much to see it in her? Looking at the clock Logan decided to give up on sleep and get out of bed. It was 5am. He needed to get up in another hour anyway.

Getting out of bed he made his way to the bathroom. He turned on the shower and then turned to brush his teeth while the water warmed up. Lidia, the little girl, was going to be getting out of the hospital today. He wondered if there was going to be some heartfelt reunion between her and Helen. Cussing under his breath for thinking about Helen again, he disrobed and jumped into the shower, letting the water run over him, in hopes, it would wipe away this anger he had.

It had been a week since Helen jumped into the icy waters of the Susquehanna to save Lidia, that fateful February day. She took a deep breath and sighed. In that week her life seemed to change forever. She and the little girl seemed to be known all over the country. The thing that was not comfortable, for Helen, was the fact that people recognized her everyplace she went, even on campus. She really did not like the attention, especially from the young men on campus. She was asked out a couple of times, but politely declined.

Three news stations interviewed her. They asked her many times what it felt like to be a hero. Those interviews were done with only Helen, since Lidia was still hospitalized. However, that day it had changed. Lidia had been released from the hospital that morning and they had done their first of seven interviews.

For those that knew her best, they knew that Helen was anything but comfortable in front of a camera. She hated crowds. She liked to stay on the outside of things. She avoided drawing attention to herself. It was just who she was. A doctor had diagnosed her with anxiety issues when she was still a kid. Her mother did not have any qualms telling people that, when it became evident that Helen did not want to socialize.

"Please let this go by fast." she whispered a plea to God.

"Did you say something?" her mother asked from across the room.

"I was just talking to God." Helen said softly.

Helen's mother came up behind her chair and put her arms around her shoulders. Bending over she planted a kiss on the top of her head. "This too shall pass my dear." She said with a smile.

"Now then, there is something we need to talk about." her mother said.

Elaina Day sat watching the afternoon news. She could not help but smile as the interview started with little Lidia. The little girl looked so adorable in the purple overalls her mom had put on her. She could not help but giggle a bit when she saw Helen sitting next to the girl. Poor Helen, everyone knew she was so out of place doing these interviews. It just hit Elaina a little different than it did Ester, Helen's mother. Elaina could see the humor in it. Not in a cruel way, but in a way that made her remember the conversation she had had with Helen about a year ago.

She allowed herself to think back to that time.

"Hi, Helen, how are you?" Elaina observed the twenty-year-old jump.

"Mrs. Day you about gave me heart failure! I did not even hear you come up behind me." Helen exclaimed softly.

"My son says the same thing. I am light on my feet. It may be that he gets his dance ability from me." The older woman smiled as she did a dance step.

Helen laughed. "I hope he does not make it a habit of sneaking up on people too."

Elaina cocked her head to the side. She observed the young woman in front of her. She was always drawn to Helen. However, there was always something that made her think the young lady really did not care to be around a great deal of people. She did not go out with the other kids when she was a teen, she did not seem inclined to make friends now to go out with, and she seemed like it almost hurt to talk now.

Helen knew she was being observed. She could not help it, but she started to fidget under Mrs. Day's scrutiny.

Elaina cleared her throat and ventured, "You do not enjoy a great deal of contact with people. Do you Helen? Now before you answer, I am not trying to make it seem bad. I just want you to know I understand."

Helen looked down. She always hated it when her mom would make the same observation. She cleared her throat. She was going to answer, but the words just seemed to stick.

"It is ok, Helen. I just want to say one thing to you. I just feel like God is telling me I need to say this to you. Sometimes He calls us out of our comfort zones. If He does this to you, please, be obedient. He loves you, and He will protect you at that time." Elaina said to the younger woman.

Elaina remembered the tears in the young lady's eyes. She did not say anything. She just nodded and smiled before she walked to her calling mother.

Hearing Helen's voice on the TV brought her back to the present. She started to make her supper as the interview was coming to an end. She was just getting ready to put the chicken in the oven when Lidia's mom was saying that they did not have good insurance. The bill for the hospital was over $200,000. She vowed to pay every penny back. She was just so grateful to the doctors and hospital staff for saving her daughter's life.

Elaina's mind began to for a plan. She was not sure if it would work, but was willing to give it a shot. She put the chicken in the oven and called Logan.

"You want me to what!" Logan tried not to yell, but he just could not help it. His mother was out of her mind.

"Now hear me out son." Elaina tried to calm him. "This little girl did not have a good healthcare plan. Her parents can't afford to pay this bill. A person like you doing a benefit would be a great way to raise money."

"I understand the benefit part mom. I do not understand the part in which you want me to teach Helen to dance." he hissed through clenched teeth.

"It would be a great way to draw attention to the benefit. The news can do updates on how it is going with the lessons. We can sell tickets to a dinner that ends with some type of ballroom dance featuring you and Helen. You have to admit, it would draw a crowd. We may be able to pay off the entire bill for Lidia's family. If there is any money left, we can even set up a fund at the hospital to be used for those that can't pay their bills."

Logan ran his fingers through his hair. He knew he had no reason to say no. He had nothing on his schedule for the next two months. He remembered the phone conversation a week ago about this time and the question he asked himself when he hung up. He could do this. He had the time to do this. He did want to help this child's family. He just did not want to be that close to Helen. He had a choice to make. Taking a deep breath, he decided to make the right choice, "I'll do it if she will." Closing his eyes, he resigned himself to dealing with the anger and helping this child's family.

What a day. Helen sat at her computer desk and tried to do her homework. All she could think about was what her mother had asked her to do earlier. Learn to dance. Not just learn to dance. Do it in front of cameras. She just could not imagine what Mrs. Day was thinking bringing this up to her mom. When asked to do this, Helen went to her number one answer. "Let me pray about it."

She sniffed letting a tear run down her cheek. She watched it drip onto her desk top. She had prayed about it. She knew what God wanted her to do. She just had such a hard time imagining that God was going to ask her to do this. He knew her so well. He knew she had come to a point of depending on His arms only for strength and comfort. He knew this was going to be so uncomfortable for her. Why was He asking this of her now? Helen knew she would not be able to sleep until she told her mother the answer. Who was she kidding? She was not even sure that would help her sleep. Going to her bed she propped pillows in a circle. As she had done for a long time she snuggled into those pillows and pretended they were the physical arms of God. She lay there and cried for a few minutes. She lay there in hopes God would change His answer. After some time had passed and with a weary spirit, Helen went to her mother's room and told her she would do the benefit. Helen returned to her room and went back to her pillows and talked to Jesus. She told Him how scared she was of this. She asked Him to forgive her for her lack of faith. She laid it all in her Savior's hands, and then, she slept.