The moment she answered, she started crying.

“They said you ran away,” she whispered.

“I told my mom you wouldn’t do that.”

I had believed my isolation was a fact of life.

Hearing her voice reminded me that people had been looking for me while I lay in that ditch.

Then Leah returned with news.

My aunt Colleen was driving from Columbus to meet me.

And she was bringing a question my father had refused to answer for years.