I take quick steps on the craggy path, furious at Lottie and furious at myself. New Adele is brave but not foolish. Grass roots catch my right shoe, and I throw my arms out to keep my balance. Too late. The sky tilts at a strange angle and I tumble off the path and down the incline. The world spins in violent circles. Dirt. Mountains. Bright-orange aloe flowers. Yellowed grass. I flip head over heels and come to a hard and painful stop. I taste blood in my mouth.

• • •

It hurts to breathe, to move, to do anything but stare up at the perfect blue sky above me. No clouds or wind break the stillness of the valley floor. It is eerily quiet. Then noises return. The thump of my heartbeat. A cricket’s chirp. Birdsong and the muffled sound of Lottie calling my name from far away.

“Adele. Adele. Say something, Adele.”

My back aches, and I pray to heaven.

Please, Jesus. Let me be whole or walk with a limp, but no more than that. I beg you.

Mrs. Button’s niece, Charlotte Button, survived a head-on collision outside of Lavumisa two years ago. A miracle, the preacher said, except that now Charlotte’s a cripple. Now Charlotte sits on the front porch of her daddy’s house in her wheelchair and watches people walk to wherever their two legs wish to carry them. Mother has Rian and his asthma to take care of. I’d rather die than add to her burden.

Stay with me, Jesus. The sky remains still, pale blue, and empty. Mother is right. Jesus is in London, working on more important matters.

I turn my head from one side to the other, anticipating a cracking sound, or worse still, no movement at all. The sun beats down. Sweat stings my eyes. I’m in a narrow valley, surrounded by wild grass and smooth stones. Aloes stand sentinel on the ridge above me. My tongue swells in my mouth, but I’m alive: hurt, but all here.

I sigh with relief, and there in the dirt is one of my shoes. It must have come off when I fell from the path and hit the ground. Except . . . I blink into the hazy light. The shoe is wrong. It’s two sizes too big, and the leather is scuffed and worn. My shoes are brand-new from the Bata shoe store. I wiggle my toes and feel the new leather stretch against them. That shoe is not mine.

“Adele. Hold still,” Lottie calls. “I’m coming.”

I sit up slowly and realize that the shoe is attached to a foot, and the foot is attached to a pale leg with an ugly blue bruise on the right knee. Pressure builds in my throat. My mouth opens, and a long scream comes out. Flies scatter from Darnell’s face, and my scream goes on and on, till the valley echoes with the sound of my terror.