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153 We listened intently as Star continued reading the incredible story in Son’s words. “Daddy drove most of the morning that day. I sat up front with him, but we didn’t talk much. Daddy was mad at me and I was afraid to ask any questions, so I just sat and watched the country go by. It was cold and windy, and most of the plants were bare, so there was not much to look at.The farther we got from Alpine the flatter the country got. It would have been depressing even if I wasn’t already scared. “That afternoon Uncle Tom and Uncle Ray took turns driving while Daddy and I got in the back and tried to sleep some, but I was too nervous to sleep. Uncle Tom and Uncle Ray took turns driving and argued about who got to drive and how long. Thinking back on it now I believe they were full of fear and nervous energy and relieved to have something to do. “After a while I figured out we were headed for Seymour from listening to the talk. We were going to the farm where they had been abused as foster kids. It’s about four hundred miles from Alpine to Seymour as the crow flies, but we didn’t go a direct route. First we drove up into New Mexico, to Hobbs, and then turned east and came back into Texas in the Panhandle. We kept zigging and zagging north and south and I’m guessing we actually drove almost six hundred miles. I learned that on the return trip we were going to leave Seymour heading east for what Uncle Tom called ‘a ways,’ and then ‘drift south’ close to the Mexico border before turning back west toward Alpine. I heard Uncle Tom tell Uncle Ray that if anyone ever remembered seeing us, they hoped our direction would confuse people as to where we came from. We stopped at remote roadside parks and side roads to eat the food we had brought and to refill the gas tank from the cans of gas in the trunk. As I look back on it now, I think it was a pretty good plan. It was a common old car driven by three men and a boy who really did not stand out in any way.We never stopped at a restaurant or filling station, never talked to anyone, and hoped no one took notice of us or remembered us. From all the effort at not being noticed it did not take me long to guess that we were not going back for a social visit, and the more I thought about what we might be going for, the more scared I got. “It was after dark on Saturday night when we arrived in Seymour. Uncle Tom and Uncle Ray remembered the way to the farm well enough to drive right to it without asking directions or losing time searching. Uncle Ray was driving Chapter 26 12:00 PM, Sunday, October 10, 2004, Alpine, West Texas 154 when we found the turn off the main road. He turned onto a dirt road and stopped after going a hundred yards or so and turned off the car’s headlights. “I asked why we were stopping and Uncle Ray told me he wanted to let his eyes get adjusted to the dark. He wanted to drive the rest of the way without lights so no one would see us coming. I remember sitting there in that car in the dark with the only sound coming from the engine running. No one said anything. I was so scared by now I was about to mess my pants. “While we were sitting there Daddy said to me that he wanted me to just do what he told me and be quiet, that I wasn’t to talk again till we left this place. He asked me if I understood, and I said that I did. “Finally Uncle Tom said that he could see pretty good and Uncle Ray agreed that he thought he could see well enough to keep the car on the road. That’s when Uncle Tom sort of sighed and said, ‘Well, let’s get this over with.’ I remember actually shivering when he said that. “Uncle Ray slowly drove the car down the dirt road. He cussed under his breath a couple of times when the wheels hit ruts he couldn’t...

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