The Book of Ruth

by Jane Hamilton

  When Aunt Sid describes our future I want to run and hide. When it comes down to it, I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk out the front door. I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk into the college rooms with tall windows and everyone writing notes, learning tragedy from paperback books. Without May I’m empty. In my bones I’m so scared, but the mystery is in my heart—that’s where I have the gumption.