My father might never be ready to turn around, face me. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t right to open the door. And Jasper deserved that chance too. It wasn’t fair to leave her in that hot room alone, feeling guilty or hurt or abandoned. No matter what she’d said. I had her and she had me, and I wasn’t going to walk away.

But as I came along the creek bed, and neared the Vine Realm, I stumbled on a stranger, a man sitting on Sam’s rock, only about twenty feet away from the gap in the kudzu that led to Jasper’s house. He was homeless looking, but not in the old, sad way. He wasn’t mumbling to himself or sleeping with his shirt over his head. In fact, he was young, maybe handsome. He had a guitar and an army pack on the rock with him. He had long blond hair and a deep tan. But as I neared his rock, something about the way he looked at me made me nervous. He turned to me, waved, and said, “What’s up, little lady?” He winked, and I noticed his neck tattoos, all black and swirling lines.

I stopped and waved back. A careful wave—friendly, but not too friendly, I hoped. “Hi.”

He grinned and took a sip from a bottle he had hidden down by his side, where I hadn’t noticed it. One of his teeth was silver. It blinked in the sun.

I didn’t know what to do now. I wanted the man gone. I wanted him to leave the farm and the creek, go away. But I couldn’t think of anything I could possibly do to make that happen. He looked comfortable there in sun, like he had no intention of moving anytime soon. But I couldn’t go to Jasper’s until he left, couldn’t risk showing him the path through the kudzu that led to the house.

Then, from somewhere inside me that didn’t feel like my own brain, ideas formed. Words shot out of my mouth before I even knew what I was saying. The words came out loud. “That’s not your rock!” I said.

“Hey, now, mama,” said the man, laughing easily. “No need to be harsh. I’m just sitting a bit.”

I shook my head. “No. You can’t sit there. That’s my brother’s rock.” My voice was almost a shout. It felt big, like it was rushing out of me from somewhere deep down. “Nobody else should sit there.”

“Aww, I bet your brother don’t mind,” said the man. “I bet he’d say it’s fine.”

“Well, you can’t ask him,” I said. “Because he’s dead.”