I ran to our bedroom upstairs in near panic to tell Melody and Lissa that I had to go find Wendy. All three girls were cuddled together in the middle ...f the big bed, crying quietly. They heard me come in and before I could turn to go, all three held out their arms to me.That was it. There was no more restraint. We cried. We cried most of the night, crying ourselves to sleep and waking still in tears.If it weren’t for the boys getting up Wednesday morning, we would have stayed in bed crying all. For somereason she seemed attracted to me from the first. Maybeit was the fact that I ignored her in the beginning andshe wanted to get my attention, whatever the reason shesoon reintroduced herself in no uncertain terms.I was standing on the porch sneaking a joint when Iheard someone come up behind me and almost jumped outof my skin. Holding the joint behind my back I turnedguiltily to see who the intruder was, only to find thisyoung woman looking into my eyes with her smiling face.She said. Was it considered small at that time or large as it was to me? One thing for sure we were not going any further by truck.✧ ✧ ✧Since it was still early and I had nothing planned, I would explore. What I found was more boulders of varying sizes, no running water, no creeks; no gravel to pan, just a whole lot of nothing. Hell, not even bunnies thought this area was any good. There ain’t no gold in them their hills. But it wasn’t a total loss. Far to the west, off in the distance, I could see what. The weather was unbearably hot by now and certain to get even hotter before autumn. And there was no let up in the amount of work the women were made to do. The guards sheltered under whatever shade there might be, but the prisoners toiled away non-stop in the full white heat of the desert sun. Any real or imagined slacking was punished with the whip. So the prisoners had enough troubles of their own without worrying over Megan.Clarissa sometimes wondered how Megan stood the heat which was now.