Free Burned by Ellen Hopkins

He even
    wanted me to go to college. Said any
    girl as smart as I was should have a calling
    other than kids. We were only kids ourselves, of course, and like most kids that age, our love moved way beyond kissing.
    No wonder she'd hesitated to come clean.
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    Ely was--and still is--a very small town.
    Word got around tili it reached your grandfather.
    Heforbade me to see Kevin, but love was more powerful than fear. I was just
    five months shy of my eighteenth birthday
    when your father caught Kevin and me
    parked near Burnside Lake. Stephen
    pointed a .45 right between Kevins eyes and ordered us to get out of the car.
    The picture rolled clearly into view.
    He made us both kneel in the dirt.
    The pistol swung my way. "Father sent a message," he said. 'You are not to see
    this man again, or both of you will die."
    I started to cry and Kevin reached for me.
    Stephen cocked the hammer. "Don't
    touch her or I swear Fll shoot you dead."
    Stephen was home öfter his first tour in Vietnam. He'd done plenty of killing.
    We had no reason to doubt he'd do more.
    I didn't doubt it either.
    "What did you do?"
    I begged Stephen to leave us ahne. Asked
    how he'd feel if Father demanded he leave
    226
    Molly. He laughed and told me to get in his car. When I refused, he put the gun
    harrel against my cheek, pulled it gently toward my temple. "I'll use this," he said.
    "One more would mean nothing." A crazy
    Fire flickered in his eyes. I believed, then as now, he could have killed me as easily as he slaughtered innocent Vietnamese.
    And have yet another
    ghost to haunt him.
    I stood and started for his car, afraid for my life, for Kevins life. I heard Stephen
    tell Kevin, "If you ever so much as glance at my sister again, I will hunt you down like a dirty coyote." Then he brought
    that .45 hard against Kevins jaw. Cracked it wide open, but that wasn't enough. Stephen
    beat that man tili I thought a bullet would've been kinder. So now you know why Stephen and I didn't speakfor so many years.
    One piece of the puzzle.
    "But what about the church?"
    Stephen damn near laid Kevin in his grave.
    But when Kevin tried to press charges, Sheriff
    Steele claimed there wasn't enough evidence.
    227
    See, he was also our bishop at the time. Church
    law before any other, you know that. I suffered his "court oflove," admitting asfew dirty details as they'd allow. When I Turned eighteen, I did go off to College . And I never sat through another
    Sunday from hell. Kevin moved away.
    I kept hoping he'd write. He never did.
    228
    I Was Stunned
    I mean, I knew my dad could be
    cruel, but this went way beyond anything I'd ever witnessed.
    After a few shocked moments,
    I got up, went over and put my arms around Aunt J's neck. "I'm sorry."
    She tensed, as if she'd never been hugged before. Then her shoulders
    sagged. It was a long time ago.
    I came around and sat at her feet.
    So much sadness in her eyes!
    Why hadn't I noticed it before?
    "Did you ever see Kevin again?"
    She nodded. But by then it was too
    lote. I'd already married Stan.
    "But you did fall in love again, didn't
    you? With Stan?" You had to fall in love to get married. Didn't you?
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    Aunt J stared toward the hüls, crimson in sunset. Real love
    finds you once, if you're lucky.
    "But what about. . . ," I started to say. There was so much
    more I wanted to know.
    Some people never find love at all,
    Pattyn. Count y ourseif hlessed
    if it ever Happens your way.
    230
    We Went Inside
    To our separate rooms, where the walls formed
    boxes around us. And I
    wondered what Aunt J was doing, alone in her own private cubicle.
    Closed in by plaster, question after question
    infiltrated my aching
    head. What about Stan?
    Hadn't Aunt J loved
    him at Ieast a little?
    Was she crying over
    Kevin? Cursing Dad?
    Had she tucked it all
    back away into that
    terrible space where
    nightmares are born?
    How could a sheriff
    swear to uphold the law
    when his allegiance lay
    elsewhere? How could
    Grandpa Paul send Dad on an