Hatch nods and shuffles through the dry grass. As he closes the gap between us, his massive shadow blocks out the sun. Now he’s just a giant dark blob with a halo of blinding light at his crown. Warning bells go off. It’s hard to draw breath. I tense and close both eyes. I feel the shift of his weight, hear the crunch of the weed stalks under his feet, smell his body odor and chicken grease. My scalp tingles as his nose brushes against my crown. His hand reaches in and tugs my hair to his nose. Each follicle tingles, sending goose bumps over my arms. I tell myself not to bolt. That it’ll be over soon.

He pulls back, a childish grin slathered on his big face. He’s looking at me like that piece of meat again. I draw back and cross my arms over my chest. “I have to go now.” As I walk away, my legs are jelly. When I’m through the empty house, I run.

Ethan’s sitting on the floor of our room when I fly in. He looks up at me as I grip the wall and pant.

He sits up. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” I run a hand over my face. A plan is spinning out in my brain. But would it work?

I lean toward my brother, my hands still trembling. “I need you to be ready. As soon as I can I figure a few things out, we’re gone.”

He knits his eyebrows together. “What do you mean? Back to the hospital?”

I look out the door toward were I left Hatch. “Just be ready.”

* * *

Late that afternoon the Sheriff returns in a foul mood. Something about the prices of fuel. Sheriff and Clay strap on guns and take off again. The Sheriff tells Hatch they won’t be back before morning. Clay stares at me out the passenger window of the van as they drive away, but I can’t meet his eyes. Not when I’m leaving him behind.

I find Hatch sitting on a log by the dying fire. In the twilight he looks like a boulder, giant and immovable.

I stop when I’m five feet away. I squeeze my hands together and start before I can think too much about what I’m gonna do. “Hatch, I need a favor.”

Hatch’s eyes slip from my hair to my cotton t-shirt. He sucks in a loud breath.

“Clay and the Sheriff are going to take me back to town. I have to go back to the hospital. I need you to let me and Ethan go.”

Hatch’s face darkens in the gathering twilight. He digs slowly at the bug bite above his ear. “Boss said we go home. Didn’t say nothing ’bout letting you go.”

“I know boss didn’t say, but I need to go back.”

Hatch shakes his rock-shaped head.