As she rounded the corner of the house, she saw the river gleaming like liquid silver. A brown pelican floated out in the center, so still it made no ripple on the surface. As she stared at the slice of water that had made up so much of Trudy’s and her life, her mind traveled back to the day she realized their lives were inextricably linked. More than just being sisters, more than sharing a home and parents and a fondness for chocolate pudding. It was a single request from their fragile, damaged mother that had bound them with something thicker than blood.

1973

Violet was running. It reminded her of the times her dad used to take her out on his boat in the dark early mornings. They’d skim across the river so fast, the wind would push her cheeks into a grin whether she was smiling or not. Occasionally she was, but not always. Her dad was unpredictable at best. At worst, he was terrifying.

But today her feet met solid ground as she ran home from school, and her smile was wide, genuine, uncontrollable. Her legs pumped, her heart raced, and the wind coaxed her hair out of the twin braids that thumped against her back. She was seventeen years old, but she might as well have been a kid again. She was giddy, and giddiness wasn’t common for her.

“With grades like these you can go places,” Ms. Cox had told her after the bell rang. As kids spilled out of the classroom, freedom etching each face, Ms. Cox took a step closer to Violet. “Students like you don’t come along all that often, Violet. What you have is special. I hope you can see that, and I hope you’ll let this feeling—the one you have right now—carry you far.” She gave Violet’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.

It was like Ms. Cox had heard the desire that had coursed through Violet for as long as she could remember. The desire to leave Sugar Bend, the sun-baked elbow in the river where she’d been born. The desire to see new places, to do new things, to push herself. To be someone new.

She stood there a moment longer, basking in the glow from the bright red A+ written on top of her biology test, before she shoved it in her bag, thanked Ms. Cox, and started running.

Their home was half a mile from the school, and Violet sprinted most of the way. With a pang she thought of Trudy’s face when she told her sister she’d see her at home. Violet and Trudy walked home together every day. Well, not together exactly. Trudy walked with her three best girlfriends, all of them giggling as boy after boy called to Trudy, flirting, joking, trying to be the one to make her smile and laugh.

Violet always walked a block behind, invisible to everyone but Trudy, who often turned around to see if Violet was still there. As if life as she knew it couldn’t continue if Violet wasn’t around to make sure things were okay. With a father who was often out on the road in his eighteen-wheeler, and a mother who spent most of her energy dodging blows from her husband, both verbal and physical, Violet had accepted her role as Trudy’s caretaker long ago.