Sam skipped along the road trying her best to whistle a tune; she couldn’t get real high though, Daddy was still teaching her. Tony may have laughed at her ragged shoes today, but he couldn’t say a thing about her bag. This Christmas, Mama and Daddy got her a real school bag. It even had a string so she could hold it over her shoulder. All January long, she had been walking into school with a smile on her face. ...

    Sometimes the roars and howls were too much. They would grow and swell until there was a sudden ring of silence, so distinct it was almost its own sound. But Sam held onto her breath because it often came back, rising and falling, and rising and falling, the last one always sounding worse than the first. Sam couldn’t sleep on nights like these, and if there’s one thing she couldn’t stand, it was lying in bed doing nothing.
    So...

    The yellow creaking school house in Terry, Kentucky never had more than thirty kids at once, even though the limit was twenty. There were only two rooms and a bathroom in the whole building. Rumors said that Mister Lanny was thinking about moving up north. Sam remembered the day Miss Ricker found out; she made each of them do three problems on the board and Sam got an awful grade on her writing assignment. But she understood. There were four...

“Lucy, how do you spell ‘luscious’?” Sam whispered, so the other kids wouldn’t hear.
“Luscious? Why would you wanna spell a word like that!” Lucy was fourteen and smart and didn’t consider herself too big to help Sam with reading and spelling.
“Shh, it’s for my poem.” Sam cleared her throat. “The ship wailed, afraid to cave, For the water swelled in luscious waves.”
Lucy frowned.
“Sam, we’re supposed to be writing a story. You know Miss Ricker...

“Lucy, how do you spell ‘luscious’?” Sam whispered, so the other kids wouldn’t hear.
“Luscious? Why would you wanna spell a word like that!” Lucy was fourteen and smart and didn’t consider herself too big to help Sam with reading and spelling.
“Shh, it’s for my poem.” Sam cleared her throat. “The ship wailed, afraid to cave, For the water swelled in luscious waves.”
Lucy frowned.
“Sam, we’re supposed to be writing a story. You know Miss Ricker...

    By four-thirty, I was exhausted of people and feared I couldn’t handle another enthusiastic introduction with anyone. How do they smile so much, I thought. It’s like they only know one emotion.Everything was so perfect that it felt superficial. Either that, or these people lived in their own little world without pain or toils, and I wasn’t sure which was more exasperating. On the right edge of town, I noticed a hidden path leading into what the locals...