It must be about 1:00 AM, Josh thought, and his parents would be passed out from drinking by now. He could no longer hear their screaming as they argued, but he could still hear the TV. They had likely passed out while sitting in front of the set.

He eased out of bed; his back and legs still smarting from the welts left by the plastic garden stake his drunken father had used to punish him. Josh could count on the plastic stake, along with stinging slaps from his mother, every time he did something to anger either one of them.

Today it had been Kool-Aid that he had accidentally spilled on the table. His father had been especially brutal, breaking the skin in several places. After the slapping and beating, he was sent to bed without his supper. Big deal, he thought. His supper was nearly always baloney or
Vienna sausages and bread.

He eased open the window and dropped to the ground. It was early August, but the north Florida night was cool and damp due to a recent rain. He set out with no particular destination in mind; he knew only that he had had enough of the abuse his parents had heaped on him.

He wandered the streets of Newberry, dodging the headlights of the few cars on the road, until he came to the Green Ribbon Supermarket. He was hungry, and hoped that he might find food in the trash bins behind the store. His search produced a box of cookies with a rip in the outer
packaging, but the contents were unspoiled. He took a bite of one of the cookies. It tasted good, and he wolfed the rest down.

He grew sleepy after eating, and decided that he would need a couple of hours of sleep before continuing. Anyway, a boy his age would be conspicuous wandering around the town in the wee hours of morning. He found a large cardboard box that was dry, curled up in it, and slept.

***

The sun was already up when he awakened and crawled out of the box, and he was glad that none of the store employees had spotted him. He set out again. He came to State Road 51 and turned south, still with no destination in mind. As he walked along the grassy shoulder of the road,
a car stopped just ahead of him. As he approached, the driver rolled down the window.

“Want a ride, young fella?”

Josh accepted and got in. He immediately regretted it, for the man could be a cop for all he knew. But he didn’t look like a cop, Josh thought. He was a bald, pudgy man with a pallid complexion and pale blue eyes. “Where are you headed?”

Josh replied with the first thought that came to his mind. “Going to see my cousin. Lives a ways down the road.”

The man nodded. After a few moments, he looked at Josh. “You’re a nice looking young guy. Good-looking head of wavy brown hair. Big brown eyes. Bet the girls love you.” He winked. “How old are you, about thirteen?”

Josh grinned. “Almost. I’m twelve.”

The man laid his hand on Josh’s thigh. “Hey, nice muscles. His hand slid to Josh’s inner thigh and he squeezed. “Ride bicycles a lot?”

Josh was puzzled by the actions of the man, but instinctively mistrusted him. He drew his leg away. “Er, I get out here. My cousin’s house is nearby.”

The driver removed his hand. “We’re in the country and there isn’t a house in sight. Hey, you’ve got no reason to be afraid. You stay with me and we’ll have a good time. I’ll bet you could use a few bucks, too.”

Josh quickly unbuckled his seat belt and grabbed the door handle. “Let me out.”

“Okay, okay. Get out then.” The car pulled off onto the shoulder and Josh hopped out. As the car pulled away, he resumed walking. To where, he didn’t know.

He’d been walking for about thirty minutes when he came to a house off to his right. A man was working in the yard and stopped to look at Josh as he walked by. Had his parents already reported him as missing? As the man stared at him, another vehicle stopped. This time it was a battered old pickup with an old lady driving. She waved at the man, who waved back. Josh was trying to make up his mind about accepting another ride when the old lady reached over and opened the passenger’s side door.

“Get in.” It was a command, not a request.

Before he could think about it, he found himself saying, “Yes ma’am,” and hopped in.

She was elderly, but looked to be in good shape. She was slightly built, but certainly not puny. Her gray-black hair was swirled into a bun on the back of her head. Her wrinkled face was deeply tanned, and her piercing dark eyes were close set above a hawk-like nose.

She looked at him through rimless glasses. “You must be going to the carnival,” she said.

“Yes ma’am. That’s right. The carnival.”

“You going to the one in Miami or the one in Tampa?”

He thought for a moment, not knowing how to answer. Finally he said, “Tampa.”

She cackled, then smiled at him. “You got a long trip ahead of ya. Bet you’d like a good home cooked meal, wouldn’t ya?”

He was beginning to wonder if this was some kind of trap. But he was getting hungry, and the old lady seemed harmless enough. “Thanks, I sure would.”

After a short drive, the old lady turned off of State Road 51 onto a dirt road. Josh noticed a mailbox with “Kenney” lettered on the side. The woman saw him looking. “That’s me,” she said. “I’m Dora Kenney, but I’m called Granny. Now you tell me your name.”

Again, it was a command, not a request. Before he could think of a made-up name, he found himself saying “My name’s Josh Wiggins, ma’am.”

She smiled. “Glad to meetcha, Josh,” and you can stop callin’ me ma’am and just call me Granny, okay? She patted him lightly on the back. He cried out, and flinched at her touch.

Her face showed concern. “Sorry, Son. I didn’t mean to hurt ya.”

Her place was a small frame house about a quarter mile from the highway near the edge of a wooded area. It was set in a small, neat clearing with a patch of vegetables growing nearby.

“Sell my extra vegetables to a farmer’s market to supplement my social security,” she said.

It was already late morning and beginning to get hot and muggy. Josh helped Granny carry some groceries into the house. A couple of window air conditioners kept the house fairly cool inside. “Like to do my shopping in town before it gets too hot,” she said.

As soon as they unloaded the groceries, Granny instructed him to take off his shirt. He hesitated.

“Look, I just want to take a look at your back. You yelped when I patted your back and I wanna see why. Your folks been whipping you?”

He said nothing, but slowly removed his shirt.

She looked at his back and gasped. “Lord amighty! Who done this to ya?”

He kept his eyes on the floor. “My dad.”

“He don’t deserve to be called dad.” Granny got some Noxzema and gently applied it to his back. “Your mamma lets him do that?”

He sobbed, then regained his composure. “Mom don’t say nothin’, and she even slaps me sometime. It’s worse when they get drunk. They fight each other a lot, too.”

“I can understand why you’re runnin’ away. They should be reported.”

“I think the neighbors want to report it, but they’re probably afraid of Dad. Sometimes when he gets drunk he gets his shotgun and threatens to shoot people. He even threatened my Uncle Walter once. He’s Dad’s brother.”

“His own brother? What made him do that?”

“Uncle Walter threatened to report him to the police and go to court to take me away from him. Dad grabbed his shotgun and said that if Uncle Walter ever done such a thing, he’d kill him.”

“Josh, I’m goin’ to go against my better judgment and let you stay here until I can figure what to do with ya. That is, if ya want to.”

He smiled. “Yes ma’am...er...Granny, I’d like that. I can help you around the house, too.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” she said, half to herself. “Hardly anybody ever shows up here except the meter reader.”

They had a light lunch of home-made soup, hot biscuits, and peach cobbler. But for supper, Granny cooked up fried ham, turnips, cornbread, sweet potatoes, bread pudding, and iced tea. It was the best meal that Josh had ever had in his entire life.

***

Josh learned to use a garden tiller and he cleared a space to raise more vegetables. He also made himself useful by helping with all the housework. Granny joked that with Josh doing so much work, she would get lazy.

After a couple of weeks passed, they were eating at the supper table when Granny brought up the subject of school. “September ain’t far away,” she said, “and we got to start thinkin’ about getting you back into school. Me and my Elmer, rest his soul, never had any kids, so I have no idea on how to go about it.”

“If I was back in Newberry, I could just report to the seventh grade at Kelly Middle School. But it’s too far from here.”

“Well, we’ll think on it.”

***

The next day, Josh was in the house taking a break from weeding the garden when he looked out the window and spotted a car coming up the dirt road. He took a drink of his Pepsi and almost spit it out. It was a sheriff's car.

Josh sped to the back door as Granny looked up in surprise from her knitting. Josh said nothing, but ran out the back door and headed for the piney woods behind the house. He ran until he was exhausted, then sat down on the ground to rest.

He felt betrayed. Granny must have called the sheriff; there was no other way the sheriff could have known he was there. After resting for a few minutes, he got up and hurried on his way.

He figured that there were only two people in the world that he could trust now--his Uncle Walter and Aunt Maggie. He decided to go back to Newberry and seek help from the couple. He could see now that running away aimlessly would solve nothing.

Maybe Granny had been right in calling the sheriff. But he wished she had just sent him on his way. His dad had probably told the police that they always had treated Josh good, and they just couldn’t understand why he ran away. The sheriff would surely take him back to his parents. Anything would be better than that.

His aunt and uncle had always treated him well. They always gave him gifts on his birthday and at Christmastime. They were childless, and Uncle Walter had said several times that he wished he had a son like Josh. If his uncle wouldn’t accept him because he feared his dad, well, he would just run away again.

He made a wide circle to skirt around Granny’s house and get back to the state road. Once back on the state road, he would keep a lookout for cop cars.

***

A truck driver gave him a ride to Newberry and dropped him off near the Green Ribbon Supermarket. From there, he struck out to his uncle’s house on the other side of town, just beyond the city limits.

He was having second thoughts as he walked up the driveway to the familiar red brick house. Maybe they wouldn’t accept him after all. He hesitated, then steeled himself and walked up to the door.

Aunt Maggie met him at the door. She was a short, plump, middle-aged woman with a pixieish face. “Josh, come on in.” She hugged him and kissed his cheek. “Where on Earth have you been? We’ve been worried sick.” Before Josh could answer, she called out, “Walter, come in here. It’s Josh.”

Uncle Walter, a tall, stoop-shouldered man, entered the room. His bushy eyebrows gave him a menacing appearance, but Josh knew him to be a very kindhearted man.

“Josh, m’boy, you don’t know how glad we are to see you. We had no idea where you were the last two weeks.”

Josh told them of his experiences since running away, including his stay with Granny. They told Josh that Granny had nothing to do with calling the sheriff.

During the sheriff’s investigation, the sheriff had questioned a man living on SR 51 who had seen Granny pick up Josh. The man didn’t realize at the time that Josh was a runaway.

“Uncle, I won’t blame you and Auntie if you don’t want me around, cause it might make trouble for you. I know that Dad can make big trouble for folks.”

Uncle Walter looked at Aunt Maggie, then at Josh. “Son, you haven’t been watching the news?”

Josh was puzzled. “Granny has a TV but almost never turns it on. I watched it sometimes, but not the news.” Josh was wondering what on Earth they were getting at.

“I’ve got bad news for you, Josh.” Uncle Walter laid his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “You’re old enough that we can be straight with you. Your mom and dad are no longer with us, son. He shot her during a drunken argument, then turned the gun on himself.”

Josh was not too surprised, for he had expected it to happen someday. Still, he was saddened. They were, after all, his parents, and he had lived with them his entire life, though in truth it was far from a happy life.

He wept softly as Aunt Maggie held him in her embrace. “I planned to take you from my brother,” said Uncle Walter, “because I knew how he and your mother were abusing you. I didn’t want it to happen this way, but you’re with us now, and with us you’re going to stay.”