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through the trailer. No more screaming could be heard. I stayed in the same spot, watching it burn, until I heard the county fire department coming up the drive.
    I turned and ran heaving and bleeding through the woods to that blue barn. I did not want to see the firemen. Daniel had told me that if anyone ever found me, I would be locked up in a girls’ home. All I wanted was to go home, if I still had one. I stopped long enough to study the sky making sure I stayed on the right path that would lead me to where I knew the Logue family lived.
    I hurt everywhere. My swollen stomach felt foreign as I moved. I had spent a long time indoors, shut away from the woods I loved so much. The fresh air fueled me on and noises through the trees whispered encouraging me to keep going. I tried to run, in case hogs were around. I knew the beasts could be vicious and would easily eat a human. I kept a steady pace, willing myself to go on.
    Just before dawn I hit the dirt road that led to the Logues’ driveway. It was muddy, and I stumbled through the mud with my bare feet, trying to hang on to what little strength I had. The barn was not far now which meant Nana and Papaw were not far.
    Just a little further , I thought over and over.
    I tripped and fell in a puddle, and for the life of me I could not get up. I was soaked and exhausted, hungry and weak. I lay watching the sky, saying my prayers, praying that Nana would bury me with my daddy when they found my body. I lay for so long, my fingers shriveled from the damp.
    Flies and mosquitoes bit at me, but I could not swat them away. When the sun came up and began to dance on the trees, I watched paralyzed, knowing the birds would be around me soon, biting at me, thinking me road kill. I couldn’t blame them. It was their nature after all.
    The heat and the smell of me drew them my way. I lay, letting the bugs feed on me, knowing this was the process of dead bodies. I accepted I was dead, so why stop them? My eyes were swollen shut now. I drifted away.
    I was at the point of giving in and allowing the pain to take me deeper, when I heard someone shouting and the opening and closing of a truck door. Strong arms picked me up. I was carried to the bed of the truck, and I thought Daniel had found me. He had gotten out of the trailer, and I would be going back now, where I would die, and be buried in a cornfield, never seeing home again.

 
    chapter Five
    I heard my papaw’s snores. I smelled bleached sheets. It was a heavenly sound and scent. I believed I was dreaming. I lay perfectly still, waiting for the putrid smell of Daniel’s filthy mattress to hit me. After a long moment of feeling my foreign surroundings, I began to realize I wasn’t dreaming at all.
    When I opened my eyes, I saw Nana sleeping in a makeshift bed beside mine. I lay staring at her. It was dark outside, and the light from the bathroom fell on Nana’s weathered face. She looked like no other woman I’d ever seen. She was beautiful. Even being in her sixties, she shone with light.
    She wasn’t wearing makeup. I thought this funny and completely out of character. She would not leave the house without her face perfectly lined and colored. I had the sudden urge to laugh. Her neat blonde hair was fanned out around her face, making her appear even more angelic.
    I looked to see Papaw asleep in a chair at the foot of my bed. His head hung to the side, resting on the chair back. I wanted to give him my pillow, afraid he would wake with a sore neck. I tried to sit up a little, but my body was so stiff I couldn’t move. I felt oddly heavy, and my head foggy.
    I must have made a sound, because I saw Nana jump. I turned my head to look at her. She looked at me blurry-eyed and smiled. Then she was at my side placing cool hands on my cheeks, “Thank you, oh Lord. Thank you,” she breathed then kissed my forehead.
    I wept as she held me. She didn’t sound or act like she didn’t want me. She was holding me as if I were not