Chapter Five

      For six long years, I would wear a trail through the meadow. As straight a line as I could manage led eastward, where even the rocks lining the tracks were plucked into place by my feet. Then, after I'd made it home from a day of loneliness and bitter rumors, I would run as fast and as far as I could. But I was always forced to stop at the edge of the ravine.

      Hours could pass with me perched on the edge. Staring down into the rushing water, the height seeping into my bones, whispering for me to jump just to feel what it was like to fall. When it became too tempting, I always thought of my brother. Then I would slowly ease to the ground and sit with just my legs hanging off the edge. This was my place. My only escape. Because on the other side of the ravine, I could see the land that was free.

      For six long years, my life was filled with the same dreariness. Trapped in the shallow bowl between the ravine and the train tracks. With nothing but Amelia's aging voice grating my ears day in and day out. Nothing would shift the impenetrable loneliness... until the anniversary of my mother's death.

      At the age of fifteen, rebellion had long since been rooted in my stomach. After being secluded for so long, I began to question whatever Amelia said. Including her edict declaring that I was not to set foot into the northern woods. Well, on this very day, when all hope of a normal life had ended with my own mother's drunk driving, I decided that it wasn't worth it to listen to Amelia anymore. What good had her wisdom done me so far?

      Without an ounce of guilt, I left the small shack shortly after noon and headed straight back behind the house. Whether or not Amelia knew, I did not care. I just kept walking north.

      Slowly, my walk became a climb as the earth below me rose ever upward. At least a mile into the woods, I finally came to my final boundary. A winding road traveled alongside a lake, between hills, before disappearing at both ends. I paused there, looking down through the trees. And as I was watching, a car appeared at one end. It drove for only a few minutes before turning into a driveway I hadn't noticed.

      The house was on my side of the road.