The Battle of Our Minds: Flesh and Blood

Nightmare

There was a feeling that crept into young Everly's soul when the day grew dim. A certain darkness began to take hold of the sky, boldly declaring that the day was done, playtime was over, and it was time to surrender to the confines of her bed. Everly was eight, and the joy of childhood was a familiar friend, but she knew that this acquaintance – Joy – played a remarkable disappearing act when the sun went down. During the day, she ran through the fields of her family's farm confidently, her laughter echoing throughout the openness of the country. It wasn't just that she wanted to continue playing. It was that she feared the night. She had every reason to.

Although some might think there's not a lot to do in Bolingbroke, Georgia, there's plenty to do when you live on a farm. Everly's family raised cattle. She was an only child and didn't have human friends to play with, but there was not a single cow without a name – they became her friends. Everly's best friend, though, was her dog Boomerang. Boomerang was the most loyal mutt in Middle of Nowhere, Georgia. No matter how many times he ran off, he always came back. Everly's daily routine consisted of homeschool with her mom, helping her dad with the cows, chasing Boomerang through the fields, and exploring the creek in the woods by her house. Rachel and Ben Cross raised their daughter wild, teaching her that the best things in life were not bought, but discovered. She was a born adventurer, and she pursued an adventure at every opportunity. Most of the time, she created her own.

Everly would make a mystery just so she could solve it.

The sun descended on the horizon, and Everly watched as a crescent moon emerged from below the ends of the earth. The moon was twisted into a crooked smile, beaming like a Cheshire cat that knew something very important.

Something she didn't know.

Something it refused to say.

Nonetheless, she did her best to ignore the eerie sense of premonition that came upon her as her feet splashed through the creek. She tore through field weeds, sprinting back to her house.

Everly wasn't always homeschooled.

When Everly was five and going to school for the very first time, Rachel did everything to prepare her little girl for the big day. She draped her in a freshly ironed smock dress, smashed her feet into new, white Mary Janes, and topped her sandy-blonde head with a big, red bow.

Everly gazed up at her mom with her blue, green eyes.

"Are you proud of me, Mommy?" she cooed.

Rachel glowed with motherly affection, nodding, kneeling and tucking Everly into herself. Everly did not come easy, and Rachel was not going to take one day with her miracle child for granted.

Rachel was thirty-five years old when she had Everly. She married her high school sweetheart, Ben, at age eighteen, and they had been trying to have a child ever since. For years, they had tried anything and everything in order to have a baby. Ben was a dirt-poor cattle farmer – literally – and knew that they didn't have the means to pay for the countless doctor's visits and treatments, however, he couldn't bear to see his wife continue to sink into her depression. She had no desire to be anything other than a mom, although she'd learned how to pick up a shovel and tend to her garden the way she'd wished she was tending to children.

At age thirty-four, the doctor finally told Rachel that having a child was an impossibility. She was spent out. She was monetarily, emotionally, and physically bankrupt. Dr. Baker knew she'd had enough and wanted to free her from the pain of further miscarriages. He told her that it was over. She believed it was over. After surrendering, she talked with Ben and they decided to go through with a hysterectomy. The doctors couldn't find a direct reason for their inability to conceive, but assumed it was related to Rachel's genetic predisposition for ovarian cancer. It was likely that this predisposition would become problematic down the road. It wasn't worth the risk anymore.