CHAPTER NINE
It would seem I’m lost for hours in a fit of dreams. Memories surface and disappear. People, faces, events march before my eyes: mommy, Eric, Sylvie, Grady, Nick, poor Nick, and daddy holding me. Everything is so disjointed that I can make no sense of it; then all of it vanishes like fog, floating off in the distance while I try to bring it back to me, grasping uselessly.
I awaken, believing it’s morning. All the signs are there: the sound of birds, the rising sun, the smell of morning food cooking somewhere in the house below.
The shackles remain, cumbersome and heavy. There’s an ache in my belly as well. I try to sort through the last day in my memory and recall what happened from the moment I was let inside the house by Hurst’s sweet-faced slave. Most comes back, though
