" Well then how about a nice quiet dinner, just us girls?" she asked."You do remember that I'm not a girl's, girl?" I asked."I remember that you said ...hat yes. So how about it. Just you, me, and my friend," she said."I can't do it till my next break. Which isn't for a few days. It also want come on a weekend." I wanted her to know where we stood exactly. If she was planning some kind of power game on me, I wanted to know as soon as possible. I told myself that was why I was accepting the. That sounded like good news to me, but then my uncle dropped the bomb: He would be taking me to the airport tomorrow, and I would be flying home so I could help take care of my two younger siblings. I couldn’t believe my ears…I was supposed to stay on the ranch for the whole summer! And what about Uncle Clyde’s bad shoulder? He said he would be fine, that his shoulder was coming along pretty well.Tears welled up in my eyes, and my uncle took my hand in his, and tried to comfort me. I was. Use the fear as a weapon, as a means of control. I've always had a fear of being locked in pitch-dark places. My parents used my fear to control me." That's so sick! Did you and Melanie ever figure out why? What drove them to be so cruel?"Patricia sighed and thought for a long time before responding. "Not directly. We did figure out a few things. Both my parents, but my mother in particular, knew how to be charming, knew how to influence people, knew how to be shrewd negotiators. But there was. His bicycle helmet protected his head, but it didn’t save his neck or shoulder blade. His arm which he tried to use to cushion his fall was bent an unnatural position. A leg was twisted oddly around the frame of the bike.The driver slowed down, stared back at what he had done, and then sped off. He didn’t even slow down at the stop sign at the end of the street. He just went through it while turning to get away.The girl who had been taking a video of her friend with the hula hoop had captured.