Judith had seen people thumbing rides along the road to town, but that wasn't for her. The world out there was just too big and frightening for her, as her mother had told Pete. She couldn't face it alone. She fought for other ideas, but there weren't any.

The tears came a little more freely as Judith told herself that her mother was right, that she wasn't bright enough to get away from home and work and beatings. That being the case, she moved away from the tree and began walking down the dirt road toward home and the next beating. It would be a rough one, she knew, but she had taken other bad beatings and, after what she had heard her mother tell Uncle Pete, there would be many more, for the rest of her life, probably. She was surprised to feel a strange calm settling over her then as she began walking back to meet her painful fate. She told herself that the dream of escape had been a mistake. Life for her would go on as it always had.

Judith didn't see the dust cloud coming toward her on the narrow, dirt road. She didn't see the car either, not until it was slowing down to a stop just a few feet ahead.

"Aren't you walking in the wrong direction?" the man asked as he got out of the car, smiling broadly.

"Uncle Pete! I thought you were gone."

"I wouldn't leave without you, Judith," he told her, the warmth in his tone causing her to tremble deliciously.

"But… I mean, how did you know I'd be running away?"

"Your mother is wrong about a lot of things, darling, especially about you. You're a very bright young woman."

"What do you mean, Uncle Pete?"

"I knew you'd get the message I gave you in the attic. I figured you'd be waiting at the end of the road."

"I was, but then I decided you'd gone, so I was on my way back home."

"You don't really want to go back, do you, Judith?" he asked and moved a step closer.