title: Unhitching from the Crazy Train: Finding Rest in a World You Can't Control
author: Julie Sparkman
description: Julie Sparkman brings fun and practical insights to serious topics such as applying the gospel to otherwise crazy everyday relationships. A full-time certified counselor by the American Association of Christian Counselors, she is the cofounder and executive director of Restore Ministries, a counseling service for men, women, children/teens, and college students. She is the author of <i>Unhitching from the Crazy Train</i>, which is based on a small group curriculum by the same name. She calls the greater Birmingham, Alabama, area home, where she has been instrumental in creating and training pastoral care teams.
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  Issue #78 • Sept. 22, 2011
  
  “Butterfly,” by Garth Upshaw
  
  “The Magick,” by Kristina C. Mottla
  
  For more stories and Audio Fiction Podcasts, visit
  
  <http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/>
  
  _Beneath Ceaseless Skies_ Issue #78
  
  BUTTERFLY
  
  by Garth Upshaw
  
  The train jerked forward the instant I boarded. Steam chuffed, and wheels
  scraped metal rails. I stumbled against the guard, a beefy, middle-aged
  halfbreed. She wrinkled her nose and checked me off a list. “Maia Carson. Sit
  down.”
  
  “I’ll stand, thanks.” The other young men and women on board stared. I turned
  towards the space between cars where I’d climbed aboard.
  
  “I love children with sass, Missy. No subtlety.” She clapped a heavy hand onto
  my shoulder. Muscles bunched under her uniform. “You sit where I can keep an
  eye on you.
  
  Troublemaker row.” She seemed hardly worse than the indentured workers at
  school, but the sixshooter at her hip looked like it had seen hard use.
  
  I found myself pressed against the c