Chapter 39: The Next Morning

The next morning, Everly got ready for school without saying much of anything to her dad, nor did he really talk to her. She did take the cup of coffee he offered her, even though she knew it would be too strong for her. She needed something to wake her up.

It was a chilly morning. A thin veil of frost covered the windshield of the Jeep. Jim used the windshield wipers to chip away at it as Everly sipped the warm, strong coffee in the cup he’d given her. “I’ve got a guy coming to fix the house phone,” Jim told her, once the hole in the frost in the windshield was big enough for him to be able to see out of.

“Okay,” Everly said. It came out more of a question than she intended.

“I want to make sure you can get me if you need to,” he said. “You can always call the office, and they can get me on the radio.”

“Okay,” Everly said again. “Will you be home when the guy comes to put it in