I never went back, and fifteen years later, when they finally tracked me down, the person I had become left them utterly stunned.
The final memory I had of my family was their laughter drifting farther and farther away down a dusty road in northern Arizona.
I was seventeen, my skin burned from the sun, my throat dry, standing beside a cracked wooden sign that said: Mile 42 Desert View Trail. My stepfather, Richard Hale, had pulled the rental SUV onto the shoulder after I complained that my younger half brother, Mason, had dumped soda inside my backpack. My mother, Linda, let out a weary sigh as though I was the one causing trouble. My older cousin, Brooke, recorded the whole thing on her camcorder.
“Go cool off,” Richard said, throwing my backpack into the dirt.
