Pa didn’t come back last night, and my ma said he wasn’t ever going to show his grim face around here again. She closed her eyes softly, swayed in the breeze, and whispered, “He’s never coming back, he left for someone better,” I didn’t quite know if this was directed toward me or herself, but all I knew was, we were on our knees broke and out of food. That morning the suns beams surfaced bright across the open blue sky as the clouds galloped in slow motion through the clear air. I didn’t really understand why it would be such an absolutely beautiful day when my life was so very ugly at the moment. I guess my ma was right when she told me, “the world don’t revolve around you, Lily.”
I thought about leaving, going after my pa to see if he forgot to take me with him. That was a real dumb thought. If that old b****** even had the slightest bit of joy and love toward me, he’d just about beg me to go with him. So I sat there on the creaking porch letting the warm breeze wrap around my cold, still body, just thinking; just thinking about nothing. My ma told me stupid things happen when you’re thinking about nothing and in that moment I got up swiped up a few dollars and walked on down the road.
It had been about four days since I left my ma. Although I knew she’d be just fine without having to feed another damn mouth, I on other hand was like a little bird yearning for his mama. I could always turn back, I thought to myself, but what on God’s green earth would that do for me. I’ve walked this far, it had got to be for some reason, some fate. And anyways there wasn’t nothing back there in that old peeling house that I could ever imagine I needed. We didn’t have nothing. I continued to roam down the gravel path picking up little dusty stones in between my dirt-caked toes. Glancing at my surroundings all I saw was a couple dead cornfields looking like a darn genocide invaded the place and wide openness consumed with rolling green grass. “If I don’t find some damn people soon I swear I will be as dead as that corn husk drooping like a sad soul,” I mumbled to myself. Focusing on the infinite trail I kept walking.
No signs, no times, all I knew was when I hit that tall tree speckled with white flowers my walking had turned into a ride. Some loner pulled up in powder-white truck rust on the top and all and said, “Little lady with a face like that you surely have no business walking all alone. Now hop in and give those pretty feet a rest.” He smiled at me so warm butterflies jumped about in my gut. Without a second thought my exhausted brain took my body and nearly threw it in that white leather seat. As I weakly shut the rusting door behind me, that warm grin stretched across his face again as he said, “My name is Beau how about yours?” “Lily,” I breathed, gazing at him; he looked about twenty and wore the face of a very attractive young man. Ma said never talk to strangers, damn right you should listen to your ma…