“No.” Ellen shook her head. “Not like that boy in Bea’s class. His hair was shiny, almost fake, like a doll’s. He asked, ‘Where you headed?’ and I told him that I needed to get to Valley Forge Mountain, so could he drop me off near the covered bridge. He said yeah, but we had hardly driven at all when he put his hand on my leg, sort of on my knee, and was, you know, rubbing it.”

She paused.

“I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t say anything. He kept driving with his hand on my leg, and then he moved his hand up. All the way up my leg. I couldn’t move my hands to push his hand away, even though his hand was as far as it could go.”

Ellen took a deep breath. Her voice was steady; she wasn’t making any crying noises but tears fell from her eyes.

“When the car was getting closer to the covered bridge, I said, ‘You can just pull over and I’ll get out here,’ but he didn’t say anything back. He kept going. And I knew then he wasn’t going to let me out. So when we started into the bad corner just before the bridge, when he had to really slow down, I jumped. I already had my hand on the door handle, and I just pushed it open and jumped, and I stumbled a bit and then fell and rolled on the road.”

I thought I might pass out; black specks and silver flashed on the edge of my vision. When I spoke, my own voice sounded very far away.

“Were there other cars coming?”

“No, but his car stopped just ahead of me. I could see the red from his brake lights on the road. He got out. I thought he was coming for me, but I think it was to shut the car door. I got up and ran across the road toward the creek. I went down the bank and straight into the water near the bridge. It was only waist-deep, and I tried to run through it, but it was like I was going in slow motion, and I kept falling. The rocks were covered in slime.” She looked down at the skirt of her pinafore. I could see the track of the creek water and the mud on her socks. “When I got to the other bank, I ran as fast as I could through the woods, even though I knew then he wasn’t behind me.”

“Why didn’t you go back down to Yellow Springs to one of the houses for help?”