Kansas Sunrise Chapter 1

There is a silence that is massive, profound and introspective to rolling down a gravel road in the heat of late spring. With the windows down, the wind whistles in your face as if over the wing of a plane and the tire's rumble is an omnipresent growl. The conversations of people in the front seat become muted and distant and, if you turn your face to the window, you are alone, completely alone; faced with the silent world of swirling sparrows, fields of grass, and tractors gone idle while the men operating them pause for lunch under the naked sun.

Jilly leant forward. The rear windows of the old Dodge didn't roll all the way down so she had to press her chin against the top edge of the glass to get her full face in the wind. Her red blond hair whipped around her like a flag. Her eyes squinted and watered but she smiled. Beside her on the seat in the relative calm of the car's interior was an old army duffle bag stuffed with unidentifiable lumps. The green canvas of the bag was covered with ink pen drawings; a British flag, a clown labeled "Creepy the Clown," a carousel. Beyond that was a white backed Apple laptop.

"Are you going to the dance tonight?" Her father's voice traveled the great distance from the front seat.

"I think so." She called into the wind. "I haven't talked to Lenore but I'm sure she's going."

The voice of Jilly's mother was high and drifted, barely making it through the roar. "It'll sure be great to see everyone again though."

Jilly rolled her eyes. "You know mom, I haven't actually gone to school with any of these guys for three years. I'm a graduate of McAdams."

Jilly's mom pushed her voluminous strawberry hair out of her freckled face but didn't respond. Jilly turned her face back to the window and wandered into her own thoughts.

*

The entrance to aunt Margo's was like the portal into a dream, so familiar even though Jilly hadn't seen it in a year. It was an iron cattle gate, long since left open and rusted in place, framed by a gallery of trees and shrubs and wild grasses. With the brisk prairie wind, it was as though a host of giants and dwarves and all nature of creatures were waving branches of green leaves, welcoming whoever might be arriving.

Passage under the waving bows brought the interlopers to a shaded, green world where the riot of wind gave way to the still and hot of the underbrush. There animals could be found, beetles, rabbits and in the evening coyotes

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