I was stacking wood out back when I heard something rustling in the bushes nearby. Jewel was out, busy making a fool of herself riding on a motorcycle with the famous outlaw. The girls had stayed late at school to help with decorations for the annual Harvest Moon Dance. While they were too young to go, they were allowed to help decorate, so I was at home alone.
At first, I didn’t pay much attention to the rustling. In the country sounds like those are always to be heard, and it’s never anything but a raccoon or a squirrel come to see what you’re up to. They spy on you for a while, and when they’re satisfied that it’s just the usual human shenanigans, they go away again. But it wasn’t a raccoon this time. This time, it was something more beastly. Aaron came out of the bushes, looking me up and down, as if I’d had on one of Jewel’s satin nightgowns instead of dirty coveralls.
“Long time, no see,” he muttered and sat down on a tree stump. “You haven’t been to school all week. How come?”
“Got things to do,” I said, and went on stacking.
“Better watch out for the truant officer.”
“Truant officer knows better than to—” And all of a sudden, he was right behind me, his arms locked around me, dragging me backward toward the barn. “Come inside with me,” he whispered.
Aaron had the body of a boy, not a man, and under different circumstances, I’d have been more than a match for him. But he had surprise on his side. Even so, I managed to twist away and make a run for it. He charged me from behind like a bull, his thick head slamming into my back, knocking the wind out of me. He grabbed my legs and dragged me across the dirt into the barn, where he pinned me to the ground with his weight. He was having a hell of a time getting my overalls off, with me kicking and clawing at him. I didn’t bother screaming, knowing that nobody was around to hear, and I was never one for wasted effort. Eventually Aaron decided to delay taking my clothes off in favor of removing his own, which were a great deal easier. When he paused to unbutton his trousers, I managed to wrench my arms free, thinking all the while that Aaron Hamilton was about to get the best of me, and I would have to continue to live in Galen, a humiliated, pitiful creature for the rest of my natural life. And then, my hand closed over the handle of a sickle hanging on the barn wall behind me. Blindly, I hurled the sickle forward, into Aaron’s back. With a guttural scream, he collapsed upon me; I felt his warm blood seep through my overalls. I rolled out from under him and staggered away to the far side of the barn.
Aaron lay motionless in a pool of blood—too much for me to see just how long or deep the gash was, but it looked bad. Moving slightly, Aaron moaned, and I started to get scared. What if he bled to death right there in our barn? Murderers got the electric chair in the state of Pennyslvania. The thought propelled me out of the barn and down the road. By the time I got to Doctor Lynch’s house, I was so out of breath, I could hardly tell what had happened. Somehow, he pieced it together and followed me back to the barn.
It turned out the cut wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked and within half an hour, the doctor had Aaron tended to and taken him home.
I didn’t say a word at dinner that night and supper passed as usual with Wistar Paist and Jewel making eyes at each other, and Caroline and Jolene fighting and pinching each other under the table, for no better reason than it had become our tradition.
Just as we were finishing the meal, the knocking started; righteous knocking it was, and sure enough when Jewel opened the door, Reverend Hamilton stormed in, followed by the sheriff.
“This time that girl of yours has done it!” Hamilton roared, advancing menacingly toward Jewel. “She almost killed my boy this afternoon, nearly cut him in two.”
Jewel’s eyes got as big as saucers and she turned to me in disbelief. “Is that true, Darcy?”
I glanced from her to the reverend and back again. If I told about what Aaron had tried to do to me, it wouldn’t have made any difference. They would do whatever it was they had come to do. And telling would just make Jewel feel bad, when it hadn’t really had anything to do with her. Or maybe it really hadn’t had anything to do with Aaron and me, but really only to do with Jewel and the Reverend. It was all so dark and subterranean— anyway, I consoled myself, at fifteen, I was probably too young for the electric chair.
So I said, “Yep, I tried to kill him.”
“Do you hear that?” The reverend pounced on my confession. “The girl doesn’t even show remorse! She’s a menace. I’ve already sent my boys away to stay with their cousins in Easton. But she’ll just turn herself to enticing other boys and leading them to trouble. Just like her ma.”
“What are you saying?” Jewel demanded, her mouth trembling as she put her arm around my shoulders.
“I’m saying she belongs in reform school. She’s long been a truant, and today she proved herself a murderess in the making. Perhaps reform school can straighten her out.”
“No!” Jewel hugged me to her. “I won’t let you take my child out of this house.” She looked to Jesse for support; he looked away, jamming his hands in
