I was 11, maybe 12. I liked Tetris and Madeline L’Engle books. And riding my bike. My mother and my sister and I all lived in a teen-insy 2-bedroom apartment in Ashland City, and even though it was right by the highway, I rode my bike up and down and up and down Gloria Circle thousands of times. Sometimes I’d just ride in circles on the porch.

We’d only been in that aparment a little while. We girls made what can only be characterized as an escape from our previous residence. My mother married a really insane individual who was abusive in just about every way, and if you have to leave the house running and stay at your uncle’s place for a few days before you move, that is sorta kinda escaping. So yeah, things were volatile. Part of the abuse that occured was my stepfather hording money, thereby leaving my mother nearly penniless on her own. His way, of course, of insuring she’d never leave. But with immense courage that, to this day, blows my mind, my mother did leave him, and she made a new home for us out of virtually nothing.

Times were tough. We ate a lot of eggs, because eggs are cheap. My stepfather was still stalking my mother, and following my sister and I on our walks home from school with the promise of doughnuts. Amy and I would run the rest of the way to the church, where my mother was secretary.
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