She rose from the bed and stepped on her blouse. She hadn’t even realized she was naked. She gathered her clothes and dressed quickly, as if someone...might be watching. She made her way down the narrow attic steps ducking here and there to avoid spider webs that seemed to have taken over. In the kitchen she discovered the candles she left burning had melted all over the counter top. ‘No problem.’ she thought, scraping them off and throwing them away. She picked and apple and a bottle of Coke out. The industrial zone was active twenty-four hours a day, so activity on the street was not unusual at any hour. The amount of power needed to keep the factories, processing plants, shipping and warehousing industries active was staggering. Katy was able to tap into the local power grid with very little chance of being discovered. Over the course of a year, she had outfitted her "home" with some basic appliances, a few discarded rugs and a bed of blankets and pillows she found or was able to. That's what the fourth of July always is for us, a trip back to the large farmhouse that is my paternal great grandfather's home in Kansas for the yearly family gathering. I'd been going to these all my life, and it was always fun when I was a kid, hanging out and playing with my cousins, step-cousins, half-cousins, second cousins, cousins once-removed, and even some aunts and uncles who were actually younger than I was.The last couple years had been more awkward after going through puberty. It had something to do with not wanting to make him feel guilty, but she could not for her life remember why that was so important. She would think about it tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow morning, she knew, would be consumed by ridding herself of her hangover."Let me peek inside, Ma," Kevin suggested."No, I'll go in with you," she said boldly. "What difference does it make?" He either refrained from reminding her that it was she who had been skeptical about running into her husband or he had.