Deliverance Dockter

9 Long Years

It was a crisp, autumn day in Peru, 2 months before her 18th birthday. She sat holding her little black tattered book, slowing turning one tear-stained page after another. She had done this very same thing every chance she had for the last 9 years, whenever she wouldn’t get caught. This time there was just a bit more nostalgia. Maybe it was because her big milestone birthday was fast approaching, and like every other one since her father had disappeared with her from the Arizona desert, she knew there would be no celebrating. There would be no cake, no candles, no decorations, no song!