Jamie…no, Dixie!...awoke with a start, fresh tears on her face. They were for the father she never knew, for her mother, and for herself. If only Daddy had made it home that snowy night, everything would have been different. They would all be together, happy. She wouldn’t be here, all alone, with Owen Granville’s shadow hounding her everywhere she went.
Shaking off the sadness that threatened to pull her back in, Dixie fought the urge to hide again. She had spent most of her life learning to be invisible. Sometimes it didn’t work and Owen would lay into her, but most of the time she must have managed because no one ever noticed her. At school, no one asked about the occasional fat lip, the long-sleeved shirts on the hottest of days, or the bruises when a pant leg rode up. Their eyes would slide away or stare through her as if she wasn’t even there.
Those days were over. Dixie Mason had to be seen if she was going to make it on her own. No more crawling under a rock or being scared. She had two orders of business. The first was easy—buy some odds and ends to make her trailer a home and some food to get by. She would need to spend a few of her dwindling dollars. Her second mission was the hard part—finding a job. She would have to crawl out of the turtle shell she had hidden in for so long. She tried to pull together the bits of her heart to take her next step forward.
The door of the trailer clicked as she walked outside and breathed in deeply. The air was warmer and sweeter than it had been back home. It was April and the North was not ready to embrace spring yet, still hanging on to the tail end of winter. Here in West Virginia, it was already in full bloom. The air pressed in on Dixie’s clothes, made them stick to her skin and dampened her hair. She didn’t mind. Seventeen years in a place that was cold in every sense of the word had been enough for her. The hotter the better. Bring on the sun.
The mile into town passed quickly. She soaked up the sunshine, the green, and the explosion of blossoms around her. Everything was alive and made Dixie feel that way for the first time in her life. She was almost sorry when she reached the Dollar Store. She found knickknacks, cleaning supplies, towels, and toiletries. It wasn’t much, but enough to settle in. Item number one on her to-do list—check. She walked outside and stared at the Mom and Pop store across the road. Five minutes crept by before she gathered the courage to walk over and go inside for item number two.