Courage in Patience by Beth Fehlbaum

Author:Beth Fehlbaum
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Steady On Books
Published: 2016-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

The ladybugs on my toes were too tired to carry me another step. I was so thirsty that I contemplated drinking out of the creek, and I was as lost as I could be. I couldn’t even use landmarks to find my way home. All the trees looked the same, and most of the roads were unmarked.

I found a plastic milk crate on the side of the road, flipped it upside down, and sat on it to look at the blisters on the bottoms of my feet. I’d peeled back the skin on one and was examining the raw meat beneath it when I heard a truck and looked up to see David’s old Ford heading my way.

He pulled beside me and rolled the window down. “Mm, boy, does the air conditioning in this truck feel good. You going my way, by chance?” He leaned over and popped the passenger door open.

I nodded gratefully and hobbled to the truck. “Thanks.”

“Don’t you want your milk crate?” He winked.

“Nah, I think I’ll leave it there for the next lost person.”

He frowned. “So you were lost, not just resting? Really?”

I cringed inwardly. My lack of an inner compass was one of Charlie’s favorite weak spots to ridicule me about. “Well, I was resting, too, but yeah, I have no idea where I am.”

“That’s an easy problem to solve.” David pulled paper and a pen out of his glove box. He drew a map right then and there so I could see where I had ended up in relation to where our house is.

Then he drove me home, which, it turns out, was less than a mile away. I’d been too out of my mind to realize I’d passed the same green metal barn countless times.

I got a huge drink of water and a long cold shower. I was getting dressed when there was a knock on my door.

David said, “Hey, come on out so that we can eat lunch together. Then I’d like us to talk about what happened this morning.”

Oh, God, he wants to “have a talk.” I knew how those worked with Charlie, and I felt punched in the gut as memories flooded back: sitting for hours on the sticky leather sofa and being told what a stupid worthless bitch I am.

***

We sat at the kitchen table and ate lunch. Steven begged Bev to let Ben and him blow up a few things with the M-80 firecrackers they’d stashed. “After all, the Fourth of July is next week. The fireworks stands are open, Aunt Bev. Everybody else is setting them off early!”

Bev shook her head. “No. You guys pull those firecrackers out of wherever you hid them, and you can forget about having any fireworks next week. I mean it!”

“Aw, why not? We’re old enough to know what to do with them,” Ben said through a mouthful of hot dog.

Bev was exasperated. “I know! That’s what scares me. I want you to have adult supervision. You guys are way too

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