Chapter 1

The Phillips ranch had for its northern boundary Interstate Highway 10. One of the problems with bordering the interstate was the sleepy and sometimes drunk drivers that found it necessary to drive through the fences.

And that was where Don Phillips was headed that morning. The sheriff's office had called and told him that a drunk had taken out fifty yards of fence. So now Don would get to spend his Sunday morning rebuilding fence rather than curled up in a nice shady spot with a book or working on his house. Either way he would be thinking about the cruel trick life had played on him.

Don, you see, was cursed with the fact that he couldn't love just one girl. It wasn't that he was fickle, he just had a big heart and felt compelled to share it. And that attitude didn't serve him too well in high school. His Dad kept telling him that he hadn't found his path yet but then that was his Dad, paths and destinies, Gods and Goddesses. Don would have settled for being normal. But things do have a tendency to sort themselves out and Don's number was coming up.

A few days earlier: Amber, Kiesha, Rose and Kim had spent most of their young lives in the foster care system of Los Angeles. And in that system they had suffered every abuse known. They had been brought together in a foster home with a woman they had come to love very much. In that home they had formed a bond that had helped the four of them survive, but when Mary Jones got sick they knew they were in for a bad time.

They were removed from Mary's house and sent to four different homes. On the first night Kiesha and Amber narrowly missed being raped. They wouldn't stay a second night to see what happened. Kim had ended up in a home where she was expected to take care of four other foster kids ages four down to six months. Her new foster mother used kids as her source of income and her only concern was keeping the checks coming in. Kim went out for a walk to escape the cigarette smoke and didn't come back. The home Rose was sent to wasn't bad but the three other kids there began to taunt her about her face as soon as she got there. Rose slipped out that night taking with her the few clothes she had.

Perhaps it's a testimony to the system itself that the four girls had anticipated what was going to happen. Within three hours they had joined up at George Kowalski's house. George had a garage in east Los Angeles, Mary had asked him to help the girls if he could. When they showed up on his doorstep at two in the morning and he heard their stories it broke his heart. He would have taken them in but for a mistake he had made in his youth. The authorities would never give him custody. But there was nothing and no one that would stop him from helping the girls.

Earlier that year George had got hold of a small RV, it was basically just a converted van. The transmission had gone out and George had been able to fix it up with plans of selling it, but a better deal had just come along. George cleaned out his pantry giving the girls all the food they could stow away in the van. George drove the van down to the all night gas station and filled it up and made sure the tires were all properly inflated. After coming back to his house George gave the girls all the bedding and towels that they wanted, by daylight the girls were ready to leave but George begged them to stay until after nine as he had something else he wanted to do.

The four girls talked among themselves and decided that George had done so much for them that they would honour his wish. George got in his car and left returning at a quarter past nine that morning. When he returned he gave the girls an envelope, in it was two thousand dollars and a prepaid phone card.

The girls wanted to refuse the money but George wouldn't hear of it. It was time now to say good bye. They didn't want to but there was always the chance that the authorities would be looking for them. George went over the water and electrical hook ups on the van. The girls wrote down his address and phone number and with tears in their eyes they started on a journey that would change their lives in ways they could never imagine.

By ten that morning the girls were headed east, destination unknown. All of the girls except Kim had escaped with her clothes. Not far from George's house they had stopped at a big discount store where they bought Kim some new clothes and a few other things they thought that they might need. While they were standing in the check out line Kiesha found a road atlas, they decided it would be worth while as well.

Returning to the van they had their first discussion about where they were going. It didn't take long to decide that Interstate 10 was the closest and probably their best bet. Amber crawled into the driver's seat and started the van, they were on their way.

It took quite a while to get out of assorted sordid suburbs of LA and it wasn't until they started into the mountains near Banning that they began to feel like they might make it. With Amber driving and Kiesha in the passenger seat with the road atlas they laughed and joked as they drove. Rose was looking through the few drawers in the built in cabinets and found a campground guide. As she thumbed through it she noticed that there was a campground in Banning and in Palm Springs but she also knew it would be very hot in Palm Springs. After a quick conference it was decided to spend the night in the mountains and then get up early to try to cross the desert in the cool morning.

It was the girls first time camping but they felt pretty sure that with what George had taught them they would be all right, and after all the van pretty much took the rough edge off things. Kim and Amber went in to the office to get a spot. A few minutes later they had paid their fee and got back into the van with a small map showing them where to park.

It took four tries but Amber finally got the van backed into the spot and the girls went about exploring the campground. After discovering the swimming pool they retreated to the van and changed into their swim suits.

Returning to the swimming pool they dived in and were really enjoying themselves until a couple of sixteen year old boys showed up. At first the two boys just flirted but when they tried to get grabby the girls decided it was time to go. That's when the name calling started and the first to suffer their pettiness was Rose, but as it turned out their chants of "Hare Lip, Hare Lip." Brought the owner of the campground out he called to the girls. "Girls come back please."

Amber had always been the unofficial leader of their little group, she turned to face the owner. That's when she noticed the scars of his hare lip. "Yes sir," she replied, "what did you want?"

"Were you ready to leave the pool?" the owner asked.

"No, but that's all right, we don't want any trouble." Amber answered. Kiesha and Kim were still consoling Rose and of the two Kiesha wouldn't have minded ripping the balls off of the little bastard that had hurt Rose.

The owner glared at the two boys, "Are your parents staying here?"

The mouthier of the boys said, "Yeah, what of it?"

The owner was visibly angry now, "What spot are they in?"

"I don't know. It's that new Southwind down there. Why?" the brash kid answered pointing towards the centre row of RV slots.

"Girls come with me, please" the owner said and then led them to a golf cart with an extra seat on the back. The girls hopped on and the owner drove down the centre row of RV's stopping when he found the new Southwind RV. "Wait right here." he said. The owner went up to the RV and knocked on the door. The door opened and he went inside. A few minutes later he stepped out of the RV and walked back to the golf cart. "Now," he said, "where are you girls at?" Amber pointed towards their camping spot, the owner drove them to their van. He smiled at the girls, "I'm sorry you had trouble with those boys. I think it will be cleared up here in a few minutes. The girls got off the cart and went into the van to change out of their wet swim suits. They had almost finished changing when someone started knocking on the door of the van.

Kiesha went to look out and saw the two boys along with two couples and the owner of the campground. She then relayed that information to Amber. Amber looked around and saw that Kim was not yet finished getting dressed. She called out, "Just a minute please." When Kim did finish they opened the door to the van and stepped out.

The man standing behind the mouthy boy looked very angry. The mouthy boy was also wearing a red hand print on the side of his face. A woman the girls thought was the boy's mom was hiding behind the man. The man said, "My son would like to apologise." He pushed his son forward.