Free 05.A.Descent.Into.Hell.2008 by Kathryn Casey

ready.”
    Their lives were all going on, and they didn’t see a reason to worry.
    In Corpus, Jim bought and gutted a house three doors away from his house. The new place, a single-story house that wrapped around a courtyard and a swimming pool, looked dark at first, but he and Sharon hired a contractor who knocked down walls, opening it up. Along with the new house, Sharon had started a new business, her own company, selling promotional items, everything from bill caps and shirts with embroidered company logos to pens and awards. It was exciting having something of her own, and all the children were proud of her. “The kids knew Sharon had rough times and she’d come through them,” says Jim.
    That uncut Cave umbilical cord connected them all: Sharon in Corpus; Vanessa in Dallas; Jennifer in Austin; Lauren, who’d graduated from high school and moved to Denton, Texas, to attend the University of North Texas; and Clayton in Sinton. Their cell phones rang throughout the day. Lauren and Jennifer, the almost twins, remained mildly estranged but dependent on each other. When Lauren considered Jennifer’s thinness, she worried. “She looked like she was taking drugs,” says Lauren. “I asked her about it, but she told me to live my own life.”
    Still, when Jennifer drove to Denton that fall to see Lauren’s school, the younger sister was glad to see her. “I was so proud that she’d come all that way to be with me,” she says. “It just meant the world.”
    Two years after leaving Corpus, Jen still had that calm shyness she’d had since childhood and a need to smooth over the rough times for others. When a high school friend moved to Austin, Jennifer took her on a tour of the city. When the girl called again months later, crying because she feared she was pregnant, Jennifer invited her over and suggested she bring a pregnancy test. Then Jennifer stayed with the girl, talking her through it while she took the test. “She made me feel like everything would be okay,” says the girl, whose test was negative. “She acted like it wasn’t a big deal.”
    Despite the ups and downs of her own life, Jennifer worried about her family. When Hailey told Jim and Sharon one weekend that she was staying at Jennifer’s apartment in Austin when she was really with friends, Sharon ordered Jennifer to pick Jim’s youngest up. In the car, Jennifer chastised Hailey, demanding, “What do you think you’re doing?”
    “What do I think I’m doing?” Hailey charged back. “What are you doing, taking classes you never finish?”
    “I’m excited about my job,” Jennifer said, dismissing Hailey’s accusations.
    Although Jennifer hadn’t done well in the spring semester, Sharon had great hope for that fall. One class in particular grabbed Jennifer’s interest, a political science course. Intrigued with the ideas, Jennifer called Sharon off and on throughout the week, saying, “We had this conversation in class today…” Before long, Sharon began to hope that maybe, just maybe, Jennifer had found her niche.
    But then the bad news came: Charlie was in San Antonio working when a friend rushed him to the emergency room. Jennifer’s father had suffered a series of strokes that left him disabled. Worried about him, Jennifer rushed home. While her classes continued on through the fall in Austin, Jennifer commuted back and forth to Sinton, trying to help care for her father. She became his rock, supervising his medical care. “When she went back to Austin, she called,” says Charlie. “Jennifer was a good daughter.”
    Sharon was pleased that Jennifer wanted to help her father, but that semester, again, she fell behind and pulled out of her courses, leaving her credits paid for but unearned. “What happened with Charlie just seemed to derail Jennifer again,” says Sharon.
    When Jennifer came home for Christmas that year, 2003, Sharon urged her to focus her life, go to class, and earn a degree. It bothered her that a girl with