Bobby ran, knowing full well that if he got caught his father might actually kill him. Next to him, his dog Bullet loped, her pink cotton candy tongue flapping out of the right side of her mouth. He pumped his arms and legs faster bounding through the dirty snow like a scared rabbit.

“Bobby!” He heard the drunken slurred words of his father from behind him. It didn’t matter; he knew he couldn’t stop now.

“Bobby!” Ned Burns’ bellowed. Bobby refused to listen. He had listened to his father too many times. He had too many bruises.

“Come back you son of a whore! As bad as your mother was!” His father screamed at him, shaking the mangled hand he’d shattered on a window rather than Bobby’s head where it had been aimed. The other held a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20.“I’ll bury your ass right in there in the woods if you don’t get back here!”

Bobby refused to stop. He risked a glance backwards and felt himself falling. He hit the ground with a loud thump! Bobby scrambled to his feet and took off again. His mind raced. What should he do? He knew that as his heart thudded in his chest he couldn’t go on much longer. Everything shot through his head. Should he stop and go back? Should he go on? Should he hide? Where was he going to go? He had a brief picture of himself lying in the snow like the dead deer he had seen last winter near the house.

When he couldn’t run anymore, Bobby slammed his back against the trunk of a large tree, sat down hard on his butt, and pulled his knees up to his chest. He had to think. Huge puffs of air danced around him as he gulped breath after breath. He stared at Champ who sat waiting for him. She nuzzled him once and he pet her. 

Suddenly, Champ was up and on her hackles snarling.

            Bobby figured it was his father and froze. His father would catch him if he took off now.  Maybe he could reason with him? Maybe this time his Pa wouldn’t hit him? Maybe if he talked with him and told him how important school was, he would know why Bobby hadn’t gotten up to fix him breakfast because he was running late for the school bus?  Maybe this time he could sprout wings and fly. He decided that the best thing to do was come out and pray his dad could be talked into only snacking him around a little.