As Sam had made himself a model laborer, so Cindy made herself into a model inmate. She seemed content enough to spend the off-season behind barbed wire, whether reading, completing school assignments, or working out in the yard.
As spring was reborn, Cindy grew more restless. She watched the grass on the nearby hill turn lighter and lighter shades of green. When light green began to take on a golden glisten, she vanished.
The warden of the youth home wouldn’t say how it was that Cindy escaped. She didn’t really need to. It was commonly known that Cindy had disappeared while a grass fire was burning in an adjacent field.
Cindy ran across the highway, stepped into a service station phone booth, and unwrapped some leather strips from around her hand. Sirens screamed in the distance. She pulled a rag out of her back pocket, and wiped the blood off her hands. She lifted the pay phone receiver, fished a quarter out from behind the phone, dropped the coin into the slot, and made a call.
Cindy said, “I’m on my way” into the receiver. She hung up, stepped out of the booth, and tossed the leather straps in the ditch alongside the highway. She ran around to the back of the station and waited for a car to pass, and then she crossed back over the highway. She walked along a country road under the moon. A car or truck occasionally sped by. A motorcycle passed and growled as it slowed to stop ahead of her. As Cindy approached the bike, she recognized the familiar physique and heard Sue’s voice shout, “So you decided to take me up on that offer.” Cindy’s only answer was to climb on.
Sue took Cindy up onto the Range, up Sierra Drive, South Fork Drive, and then up a couple of remote dirt roads. They stopped at a gate. Sue fished through her jacket, handed Cindy a key, and Cindy dismounted and unlocked the gate. They rode up a steep dirt road to a shack. Sue killed the engine, and the girls dismounted and entered the shack.
As Sue lit a kerosene lamp, Cindy could see that the shack was well-appointed, complete with bed, bedding, a wash basin, a well-stocked cabinet, and a rack with two rifles and a compound bow.
“Take a load off,” Sue commanded. “I’ll cook up some dinner.”
Sue pulled a dusty pot out of the cupboard and rinsed it in the sink. She poured some water into it, put it on the stove, and turned on the gas.
“Uh’! Gotta turn on the propane. Hang on.” She walked out the front door, and returned a minute later.
After Sue got the stove burning, she pulled a bag and a paper roll out of her purse, and she rolled up a joint. She lit it on the burner and offered it to Cindy.
Cindy reluctantly accepted the invitation, took a drag, and coughed.
“Virgin, eh?” Sue said with a straight face. “Had me fooled.”
Sue got up and began peeling and slicing some potatoes.
When supper was ready, Cindy and Sue took it out front and ate under the stars.