Chapter 29

At that point, Tara took over. Her face was streaming with silent tears. “Zeke fell over when Seth shot him in the leg, but he was still raging about how he was going to hunt us down and kill us. I was standing there naked, looking at the man who had tried to rape me and who had just seemed to enjoy murdering his own brother, and I knew that, somehow, he would kill Seth and me if we all survived the night.

“While I was getting dressed, I knew what I had to do. I threw that jug of moonshine at him, and it smashed right between his legs. Then I grabbed a kerosene lamp and dumped it all over him. I made Seth go out and start Zeke’s Jeep, while I watched the flammable liquid ooze across the floor toward the fireplace. I knew what was going to happen, and I felt in my heart that it was just. I cursed Zeke to the fires of Hell, and walked out the door. As we drove away, the cabin burst into flames.”

No one moved or spoke for a while. Then my Mom got out of her chair and hugged Tara. They cried on each other’s shoulders for a time. Finally, in a very quiet and gentle voice, my Dad said, “Kids, there was nothing else you could do. You had to save your own lives. I’m just glad you had the strength and the grace of God to survive that so you could be here today.”

I looked up at him, and for the first time in my life, I saw my Dad was crying. That was all it took for me to let go.

Through my sobs, I said, “We started driving home, and when Tara could get out on her cell phone, she called her Dad. She wouldn’t tell him what had happened, but she did say we were in a stolen car. He was furious, but she promised to explain it, so he told her where to hide it. A guy met us there and took us to Tara’s house and she told her folks the whole story.