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I heard Chubs’s tongue cluck as he opened his h from the driver’s seat The topic had been dropped, and no one illing to try picking it up again, least of all h I wish the area was a little slanced my way "Thanks, Ruby Tuesday"

A not unpleasant warmth rushed up fro… I let the thought trail off It was a good lead

With one last glance down the alley to make sure it was clear, Lialove box Betty ca?" Chubs asked

"It’s a place I know" Lia "So--inians is going to have to step up to the plate and helptime since someone had labeled me like that--as a person with a home It was true, I had been born here, but Thur as it hadn’t Gray walls and concrete floors had bleached out al away first the small details--the smell of mythe staircase wall--before going on to devour the bigger ones, too

I used to wonder--at night when it was quiet enough in the cabin to think, when I letfor home--if the home in my heart was supposed to be the place where’d I’d been born, or if it was the place that was raising ot to choose it, or if it had somehow already claimed me

The truth hen I looked at my reflection in the , I couldn’t see any bit of the Ruby that had lived in a little white house at the end of a lane, honey sticking to her fingers and hair falling from her braids And it otten the words to one forever, and all that was left was a product of the place that had taught her to fear the bright things inside of her heart

We passed exit after exit to Harrisonburg and the turnoffs for Jahith nothing more than a prayer that no one would pull us over wasn’t exactly ood time, but, for now, the risk seemed worth it--at least for the view

I loved the Shenandoah Valley, every inch of its gorgeous spread When I was little,weekend of hiking or caames for the drive--I didn’t need them I would just stare out theand drink it all in

You know in movies, the ones set in older ti out over the forest, or river, and the sun catches the leaves at just the right slant, and the ins to swell? That’s exactly how I felt as we entered the Shenandoah Valley

It didn’t hit auzy bluethe inia That if we stayed on the highe’d be two hours away from my parents in Saleh," Lian up ahead: 81 CLOSED BETWEEN HARRISONBURG AND STAUNTON USE LOCAL ROADS

By nine o’clock in theto find its pulse of life Here and thererestaurants opening their doors to theaway on their bikes, balancing precariously on theels with their briefcases or bags, their heads bent toward the sidewalk They didn’t even look up as we passed

No JMU students, though None that I could spot

Chubs sighed at the sight of theainst the