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eye contact.   Another day down. Step over the cracks.   Shoe lace untied - just keep moving, tie it later.  
    Rebecca had one more obstacle between her and the safety of home.   The dreaded walk to the bike rack.   Once you were out in the yard, away from school faculty, it was every kid for themselves.   Rebecca lived a few miles away from school.   The first few days her mother had made her take the bus back and forth, but that was worse than prison.   It locked her up with no place to run, allowing the other kids 30 uninterrupted (and mostly unrefereed) minutes to torture her at will.   So she begged her mother for permission to ride her bike instead.
    In her peripheral vision she spotted Jeff and Tommy creeping like two evil henchmen, eager to play their favorite game.   Her heart sank as they pulled up right behind her.  
    "Watch out, she's mental," Tommy said.
    "I hear she had to go to a brain doctor," Jeff said, returning serve.
    "Yeah, they opened her head, but they couldn't find nothin!   Ta doosh!" Tommy's laugh was filled with evil.   Rebecca ignored their barbs and kept walking the endless path to the bike rack.  
    But Tommy wanted some tears.   He hopped forward on one foot and gave Rebecca's backpack a shove, knocking her face-down onto the sidewalk.   Rebecca caught herself just before she kissed the ground — scraping up her hands a bit, but otherwise okay.   Tommy hadn't intended to use so much force, but didn't apologize either.   Instead he raised his hand in a victory dance.
    Rebecca stayed down, hoping they were satisfied, having gotten their humiliation.   They stood over her, cackling and high fiving like their team just scored a goal.    
    Holly Schmidt, another regular victim of the evil duo's barbs just for her name alone, stood over Rebecca, eyeballing the two hyenas.   Holly was very tall for her age, heavy.  
    "Leave her alone!" Holly screamed at the top of her lungs.
    "Holy shit, it's Holly Schmidt!" They sang in harmony.   A parent walking with their child saw the commotion and approached.   Tommy spit in Rebecca's hair as they jogged away.
    Holly offered her hand to help, but Rebecca was too embarrassed to do anything but get up and out of there as quickly as possible.   She brushed past Holly, unlocked her bike from the rack, tossed the lock in her front basket and climbed on her bike.
    She didn't get 10 feet when the chain broke, sending her pedals spinning out from under her little, white sandaled feet.   She lost control and found herself face down for the second time in only a few minutes.   All around her, merciless child laughter.
    She got back up without dusting herself off, defiantly marching her bike down the street, not looking back.   Her elbow burned, blood oozing through her sweater sleeve.

    Along the route home was an opening in a fence that led to a wooded area.   It cut a direct path to her street that would have shaved about 10 minutes off her trip, bypassing the bridge over Route 101, and the big round about at Redwood Drive.   Many of the kids used it.   She saw people jogging in there from time to time.   She didn't know if Jeff or Tommy used the path to go home, but that wasn't what she was afraid of.
    The place gave Rebecca an overwhelming sensation of dread whenever she approached.   She always picked up the pace double time to hurry past it, as if whatever dark evil lurking deep within the trees was going to reach out to grab her if she walked too slow.   She didn't know why it scared her, but the butterflies in her stomach swarmed when she got close, similar to how she felt just before the spells came over her.

CHAPTER 8

    Laura held the phone away from her ear and shook it, her face contorting with frustration.   She exhaled contempt for the person on the other line as she lifted the phone back up again, regaining her composure.
    "I'm not going to discuss it anymore." She took a deep drag from her cigarette and pulled back the