Free The Lynnie Russell Trilogy by R. M. Gilmore Page B

crying I was so desperate for help.
     
    “You gotta know what the problem is ‘fore you can fix it.” He was smiling.
     
    “Wha’? How?” I started to stand up before I realized I was naked. Rusty might’ve been a ghost, or something, but I wasn’t about to show of my goods, even to a ghost. “Rusty, tell me what to do! I’m so scared. I already went and killed you, I can’t think about Garret….no. Not Garret.”
     
    “You know, you do, Lynnie. Just think ‘bout it.” Rusty smiled and rubbed his hand through his messed up hair.
     
    A gust of wind came through and rustled up the leaves. Sounded like someone was opening a brand new bag of potato chips they crinkled and swished so loud. The sparkly dirt kicked up and swirled around Rusty’s legs and up his body. He was still rubbing over his hair when the dust devil took him away from me.
     
     
    I reached out for him, but it didn’t do no good. He was gone. I let my body fall to the dirt. I cried until my body shook. I pounded my girly little fist into the earth over and over again. I grunted and hollered into the dirt under my body. It did no good.
     
    “Carolynn Russell, you get your butt up of this ground and get out of these woods. You ain’t doin’ nobody any good cryin’ in the dirt.” I was talking out loud to myself, but it was my nana’s voice I heard in my head.
     
    My nana always made me feel better. She always knew just what was wrong and just how to make it better.
     
    I sat up straight and pulled my shoulders back. My head turned quick to the right and I knew that was the direction I needed to go. I let my instinct carry me.
     
    In a flash I was on my feet and running through the woods. I felt like an ancient tribal woman. Strong, fearless, naked as a jaybird and running free through the woods. I smiled at the wind in my face. I passed a deer drinking in a little stream; it picked up its head and watched me run past. My heart thudded hard against my chest. For the first time in a week my head was clear. No jumbled up thoughts and worries, just instinct. Like the beast, I felt my way through the woods.
     
    I ran so fast and so far my legs burned. My feet were getting cut up from the sticks and leaves under them, but I didn’t care. Through some trees ahead I could see the old worn out paint of my pick-up.
     
    I was at the truck in a few seconds. I almost couldn’t stop my legs from working. I slammed into the side of the old truck and made an echo of a thump.
     
    My clothes were right where I left them. I pulled on my dirty jeans and shirt and jumped in the truck. The old piece of crap fired right up. I hauled out of the woods and back toward Havana.
     
    I was off to see my nana.
     
     
     

Poor Percy
     
    Dirt kicked up under my tires when I turned hard into the long dirt driveway that lead up to my nana’s house. The road wasn’t too awful long, but it felt like it took twenty years to get to the end. My nana’s house sat far from the paved street, back on an old dirt road filled with potholes and weeds.
     
    I slid to a stop just in front of the old porch. Paint was chipping off the steps and the screen had holes in it, but it was hers outright and she was proud of it. I was out of the truck and up to the door before I could think straight. I stopped my hand before I turned the knob over. I was scared. I didn’t want my nana to think I was some kinda crazy woman, or worse, a killer.
     
    I was standing there, stuck on stupid, when the door swung open.
     
    “Well, there you are! Lynnie, honey, your brother’s worried sick about you.” My nanny’s scratchy voice came through the holey screen door.
     
    I could see my nana through the holes in the screen door. She wiped her hands on her blue-checkered apron while she talked to me. I could hear all the rings on her fingers clanking together while she did it. The sound was so comforting I nearly broke down and cried right there on that rickety old porch.
     
    “Lynn,