A Scholar's Fury: The Road to Justice

led everything, but I coul

y, son, how nice of you! Come o

e hesitant, "Just dropping this off,

close,

a sound, any sound, through the

runt was al

harder, his knee d

ugh me, but I

o reach

steps on the porch, t

was saying, "Your Ma' s a sai

ut for everyone, but she was

e clink of a po

" Billy said, "Got

going t

o

te strength, I bit down

loosening for a fr

as e

raw and distorted by the sack,

nd back over my mouth

d Bill

en silence from

nfused, "Did you hear s

thly, "Just the wind, probably, thi

ne called my name," Billy s

ounded. He

ed, a little

son' s friend, a runaway, not right in the head, poor thing

ck, so convinc

her, son, she

bit naive, easily influenced by

ike this, a muffled v

a year or more, not since the

ing awkward. "Okay then

eded. The bac

ttering away down the dirt road, was th

despair burned my eyes un

y removed his

, you crazy bitch," he snarl

ged me to

and smelled of mild

my back with a piece of rough rope

a while," Brenda said, h

nother sound, I' l

g the flimsy door

the dark, cold,

already chafing

le bod

rlier, Cletus' s leering

d be

o do so

t the ropes, but t

y back, searching for any g

th

, lit only by thin cra

nk, old too

n a small, grimy

probably boarded up f

eemed im

uldn' t

trength, his refusal to ever back down

Betty, her fierce lov

eir gran

to be

The cold seepe

irsty, and my ho

Jeb, the young

ng, coming clo

t to check on me

te and risky, sp

rt with my teeth, ripping o

rts, a blue one Grandpa John

clumsy behind my back

arred stick, probab

y, I tried to write

me. "

"GRANDPA J

, smudged and uneven,

ht outside

im kicking at

lled out, his voice trying to sound to

my only

y voice weak but c

as s

something, just...

ft his weight o

ant?" he asked

k under the door," I

e. "Ye

.. for my friend. If you could just... take it, and when you go into town nex

d my

as young, maybe a little less h

, but there was a hint o

id, "But... my friend... she' d be gr

p of fabric under the door wit

r long

tling sound, and th

muttered, his voice gruff, a

e it? Woul

le thread of hope, b

e image of the Millers' strange, "not

desperate, and she

razy runaway

e it off, but th

family' s farm, he men

id, "They got this girl there, Brenda says she' s

, Aunt Car

always trouble, that

a look with Bi

unt Carol called her

at, as the

ed Billy' s str

ry Billy told me, about some poor

ened, her sharp in

ing scared, a

reached them through my p

ca Peterson and hadn' t return

e frantic, cal

d Grandpa John c

eterson. A girl, captive at th

ation, it was too m

clear, were ringing in

e and everything in Willow Creek, found a small, dirty piece of blue fabric on th

it, but somethi

it up, u

RANDPA JO

remembered her as a little girl with

ht to John and

fears were