Tina had seen the woman’s point and so she had agreed she would wait until her father returned and was ready to open up shop again.  So for the last four days since the time that fire had destroyed the Kennard trailer, Bette and Tina had been spending time out in the woods together.

It was a wise recommendation on Miriam’s part.  She understood that the little girl gained a sense of balance and normalcy by spending time out in the wild. And Bette noticed as well that each day they journeyed out into the woods, hiked, swam, or simply sat in the shade of the large oaks that the girl seemed to grow happier, calmer and more at ease than she had been just days ago.  The anger, the despair and the wish for self-harm had disappeared.

But today, Bette sensed that Tina was feeling restless.  Around 2pm, Tina started gathering up her gear.  “You know what, I think I wanna hike into town and check on the station anyway, maybe get my Jimmy and drive it out this way so I have a means to get into town to visit my daddy once he comes home from the VA.  Sheriff Tucker said the VFW’s gonna give him a room until we get settled into a new trailer.”

Since Cecil had never carried any property insurance, he had no means to replace his destroyed trailer.  But the folks in Athens all felt a great deal of sympathy for him and his young daughter as they had lost so much and had had more than their fair share of tragedy.  So among a number of the churches, the Lion’s Club, the VFW, and a few wealthy citizens, the people of Athens had managed to raise enough to purchase a slightly used, but still functional single-wide trailer to be relocated on the Kennard property.  Still it would be a number of months before the land could be cleared and bulldozed and the ground leveled and prepared with a new foundation, as all of that work was being offered on a volunteer basis.

“I’m not sure if my aunt is going to let you drive that old broken down truck around town, Tina.  Besides it will take us almost an hour to get to town by foot.  She wants us home by four,” Bette pointed out.