”“I will, Mom. I promise.”“It’s nice of Zeke to let you hang out with him while April is gone, but I’m not sure you should wear something ...ike that around him.”“He just thinks of me as April’s ‘twerp’ sister.”“Is that the reason for the alterations—to prove to him you’re not a little ‘twerp’?”“His friends ... yesterday at the drive in, one of them teased him about being a babysitter. He busted the guy’s nose.”“Oh wow!” And then she asked me, “So, the reason for the new look is for his friends. It's not just that all the driving wears me out; I wake up every morning utterly exhausted. You want to know about nightmares? A map of the United States as a family dot-to-dot. Did you ever die in a dream? I do all the time. Last night the hypothermia got me. We wound up at Uncle Bob's igloo outside Fairbanks, and I was dressed in shorts and a muscle shirt. It's not that I have the sexy musculature to flaunt, just that when and where I'd first climbed in the car it was 95 degrees with matching. ‘Maybe I should cut your cock off? So you can’t fuck her again!’ Lying on his back, Josh looked up at the ceiling, trying not to show the bastard he was hurt or scared. ‘But first maybe I need to teach the bitch her lesson for running away from me.’ Josh heard Kat scream and beg as she was hauled up onto her feet, ‘Leave her alone you bastard.’ He screamed, wriggling up as best he could, ‘Leave her alone. If you want your pound of flesh take it from me, but leave her alone.’ ‘Don’t worry, I. I didn't realize how much I had missed the rural south until that moment. I don't even know what caused it, but my youth just came crashing down on me. It was like the old crack in the dam trick. It's a trickle, then a flood of memories.I could see my dad, at my age, standing on the sagging porch of that half rotten frame building wearing mustard colored hunting clothes. The big twill pants held up with suspenders and the giant coat with big pockets for the quail he shot. It made me want to.