The Day the Siren Stopped Read Online Free Page B

fathered by the man who had beaten Matthew to death.
     
    Carrie gave birth to a baby girl and gave it up for adoption.  The next Kathy Mae knew Carrie had moved to Joplin.  With neither of them owning a car, that essentially marked the end of the friendship.  But, the final end came one November day when Kathy Mae learned that Carrie had died at age 24 in a car accident on her way to work.  This had been the only experience with friendship Kathy Mae had ever known.  It had ended tragically, like everything else in her life.
     
    Walking home, these things filled her thoughts because the prospect of good things in her life triggered fear in her heart.  It would take time to rid herself of the habit of expecting loss and grief.  If thinking of Mason had done this, then she wouldn't think of him, she told herself.  She would cross the prairie park on her way home, although it was a little out of the way.  She wanted to look at the buffalo and listen to the mating call of the prairie chickens in the fall.  The sky was clear with pinks, grays and blues.  These things eased her troubled heart as she learned to thrive on the beauty around her.
     
    She wanted to be free, travel like Mason across the United States, meet people from around the world and enjoy things of which her parents, her aunt, and her solitary friend had never dreamed.  It excited her that she had made one step in the right direction.
     
    Just as she began to walk down the lonely gravel drive past the sign “Prairie State Park” Kathy Mae was startled by a car coming behind her.  At this time of day this was unusual, and it put her on edge, in spite of the still daylight hour.  Moving over to the side of the road to let the car pass by, she became concerned when it slowed down and still followed behind her.  Kathy Mae picked up her pace and turned onto a trail marked Fox Way.  No sooner than she had done so, it occurred to her that this had been a mistake.  Although the vehicle would not be able to travel on the narrow path, this route took her into more isolated territory.  She glanced cautiously behind her to see that it was a truck and not a car that she had heard behind her.
     
    The large white Dodge truck honked its horn twice.  Such was not the action of a rapist or murderer, she confidently told herself.  Then it occurred to her that no such precedent had been established.  He beckoned her to him with that sound, and she saw no good reason for such action—except to get her into the cab of his truck.  Without turning to see the driver, she also did not see him waving from the rolled-down window.  She began running, hoping that she could reach the other side of the field before he could exit his vehicle and follow.  Bending herself cautiously between the two electric wires set to keep the buffalo penned, she thought perhaps that obstacle would confound her pursuer.  If shocked with voltage powerful enough to discourage a buffalo, he might change his mind.
     
    Kathy Mae had not imagined what the buffalo within the enclosure might think of her intrusion into their space.  They were as leery of her as she felt about the man behind her.  The tall strands of grass covered her completely.  The young bull less than twenty feet from her had gone unnoticed until she heard him snorting from behind.  It wasn't a comforting sound.  Panicking, she tripped and fell only to notice that she was close enough to this animal’s hooves to feel the heat from his body.  Fear froze her motionless.  The animal watched her with its bloodshot eyes, chewing on a bit of bluegrass as if this were a casual encounter.  It was a trick in nature used by every predator on earth.  Be still, pretend not to care, then pounce the life out of the prey!  She next heard footfalls crushing the grass behind her as the second most frightening male in the field came up from behind.
     
    “Move very quietly backwards towards me Kathy Mae,” he said softly in a