CHAPTER 1

The House by the Road

Jessie's shoulders felt sore from the backpack. Her steps becameslower, as she trudged down the hot macadam road. It was atwo-lane road, with rolling hills and shade trees now and then. Shehad passed a few farms, with cows in the fields. Jessie's last hitchedride had dropped her off at a crossroads yesterday. She decidedto get off the highway and take the country road for a change ofscenery. She was sick of the commercial fast lanes.

It was mid August, still warm, with the smell of fall aroundthe corner. The farmers had finished the haying and reapingthe oats and were now cutting the corn. It wouldn't be longbefore she would have to figure out what she was going to doto get through the winter. She couldn't keep traveling like this,when the snow started to fly. She was only fifteen and peopleweren't likely to hire her. She needed a place to stay. I can't goback home, I just can't! She thought.

Jessie's home life went from bad to worse when her mother,Reba, brought in Jimmy, her latest boyfriend. Jessie neverknew her father. He had been in the military and was killedin Vietnam when she was five months old. Her mother neverrecovered and used alcohol to overcome the loss. Reba workedas a waitress during the day and drank at night with whoeverwas the boyfriend of the moment. It was up to Jessie, to findodd jobs, so she would have clothes and supplies for school.The Rescue Mission store was her best friend, as she madeuse of others' discards. Jessie had learned to isolate herself inher own room away from the crying-jags and arguments ofher mother and male friends. Her room was her world, withher ears and mind closing off everything, on the other side ofthe door. That is, until Jimmy. She was aware of the innuendos,when she would walk past to get something to eat to takeback to her room. Sometimes, he would brush up too closeto her in passing, but she felt she was safe with her motheraround. One evening, she came home from a friend's house,expecting her mother to be there. The only one there, wasJimmy, and he had been drinking and smoking weed. She wentstraight upstairs to her room and shut the door. It wasn't longbefore she heard him coming up the stairs, calling her name ina singsong way. Frightened, she propped a chair under the doorknob. He pushed and pushed until the chair fell over. Jimmypicked her up and threw her on the bed, ripped her tee shirtup, kissing her as he pawed over her. It was at that moment thather mother walked in. There was angry screaming, but not atJimmy, instead at Jessie. She blamed Jessie for "leading him on".Jessie couldn't believe her mother would take Jimmy's side. Itwas at that moment that she made the decision to leave home.By morning she was on her way from New York heading westwith a trucker.

Jessie sat under an old maple tree, whose leaves were startingto show a little color, and took out the peanut butter jar,remaining bread and plastic knife that she had grabbed whenleaving home. It was her emergency food. The truckers hadbeen generous at the truck stops, and she had been able to fillher water bottle in the convenience store restrooms. But, sinceshe had taken to the country road, food was scarce. Last night,she had been able to raid what was left of a vegetable garden.Tomatoes, old sweet corn and carrots had been her dinner. Shehad seventy-six dollars and some change in her pocket, butknew that wouldn't take her far. Ma will be furious when sherealizes I emptied her wallet. Serves her right, she thought, with asigh and sadness at "what could have been".

After relieving herself behind some bushes, she jumped overthe ditch and started down the road. She had no idea where shewas or where the road would take her. Jessie started singing toherself, "you take the high road and I'll take the low road," thenstopped in the middle of the road, trying to remember whoused to sing that to her. The puzzlement was still on her face,as she heard a tractor coming down the road behind her. Sheturned around and waited for it to catch up. Jessie put up herthumb for a ride. The farmer stopped and let her hop up to siton the fender.

The farm was a mile down the road. She jumped downwhen he stopped in the barnyard. Thanking the farmer for theride, she asked if she could fill up her water bottle. He pointedher to a spigot at the side of the bam and walked inside thehouse. Not very talkative, she thought, as she walked back downthe driveway. At the road she turned to look at the farmhouseand saw a curtain pulled back, so she waved, and the curtainquickly fell back into place.

Three days later, after a cold night sleeping under anevergreen tree and scraping the last of her peanut butter jar onto her end piece of bread, she picked up her backpack withweariness never before known. Jessie knew she needed to findwater. She had been walking for about a half mile, when shecame upon a dirt road on her right. The land was a mixture ofwoods and old fields of golden rod in full bloom. There might bea stream down there, she thought hopefully. The dirt road was onelane, that followed the up and down hills of the countryside.As she walked over one more crest, she spotted a rundownhouse by the road. The yard was overrun with weeds, but shecould see a well-worn path from the house to a mailbox. Therewas an old green Ford Scout parked under a shade tree, and ablack longhaired scruffy dog sleeping on the porch. Jessie wasleery of approaching the porch, because of the dog. She was acity girl and didn't have personal experience with any animals.Her thirst getting the better of her judgment, she approachedcautiously. But, the dog just looked up at her, never raising hisgrey muzzle from his paws, and thump the tail on the porch.None, the less, Jessie made a wide path around the dog andknocked on the door. No one came, she knocked harder, still,no one. She hollered out a "hello". A voice, from outside theback of the house, shouted, "I'm coming, I'm coming". A fewseconds later, an older woman with disheveled grey hair hangingstraight down came around the corner. She was wearing anold ripped plaid shirt over a faded, flowered, cotton dress thatbuttoned down the front.

A slip hung below the dress, and men's black rubber bootscame almost to her knees. She came up close to Jessie, so shecould see her face clearly, squinted at her, stepped back to lookher over better, then walked back up to her and said "Annie,you've come home." She, then, hugged her with a surprisingstrength. Jessie was speechless.

"Could I have a glass of water," asked...