Chapter 23

“What the hell were you thinking?” came the rough voice she was growing to love as each day went by. “Could you not tell that this place was unsafe,” he said, pulling her up and away from the hole she had created.

Once her feet had hit sturdy ground, she hugged him as tightly as she could and sobbed again in his chest. He was startled for a second and then rubbed her on the back.

“I felt the same heartache the first time I entered this place as well,” he said in a soothing voice.

“Why is it still here?”

“When I was about ten, I stood at that opening in the back and watched them beat a man so bad that his back looked like a slaughtered pig. The so-called preacher said a couple of verses from that same bible that was under that stool because they intended for him to die.

You asked me what happened to my father; I’ll tell you the story. The man who left me all this property was a horrible man. As a young’un, I knew I was different, and it not only bothered