Be Not Far from Me

by Mindy McGinnis

I’m screaming and I’m kicking and my good foot is scissoring through my own blood, and I keep hoping I’ll pass out, but I don’t. Because I was born with teeth and fingernails, and both of those were made for hanging on.

They move me closer to home, to a hospital in the right state and the right county. A squad takes me, the staff hustling me out a side door so that the reporters don’t spot me. I’m something of an odd celebrity, the Girl Who Lived, a hillbilly Harry Potter.