It was almost dark when Mary woke up under the bed. She didn't know where she was at first. She didn't hear any movement in the house.

Slipping out from under the bed, she looked out the bedroom window. The car was gone. She sighed a breath of relief. There were just fields, a row of windbreak trees in the distance, swaying, the leaves shimmering on an evening breeze.

She reached under the bed and pulled the sack out. She drank the rest of the warm milk, and ate several of the sweet cornbread rolls she'd found in the red ornamental bread box as she decided what to do.

The...