The night seemed normal. It was Friday. Fourteen year old, Maggie Peters sat cross-legged on the living room floor playing Monopoly with her younger brother, Skeeter. The phone rang. Maggie heard her mother pick up the receiver and say, "Hello," then her voice broke. She slammed down the phone within a matter of seconds. Maggie braced herself. Something terrible had happened.

Mama stumbled out of the dark hall. Her nightgown fluttered around her. She was trembling. Tears slid from her eyes. In a choked voice she whispered, "Daniel...drowned. Daniel drowned today." Her mother turned and disappeared back into the darkness.

What? Maggie's entire body went numb. She looked at Skeeter, and he didn't seem to be breathing. What?

Maggie heard her mother dialing the phone. She must be calling Garnet. Maggie knew she would tell her they were coming. When they got there however, Daniel wouldn't be there. He wouldn't ever be there again. What happened? Her mother’s voice in the hall was muffled. Maggie couldn’t understand what she was saying. When Mama hung up the phone, she re-entered the room. Her voice was flat and hard, "It happened in the cattle tank this afternoon. Get packed. We're going as soon as your daddy gets home." She disappeared again to call Maggie's father at the fire station.

Skeeter sat wide-eyed and frightened. "Come on," Maggie said. She went into the kitchen and got each of them a paper bag from under the sink. They didn't have suitcases. Skeeter grasped his bag and went to his room. Maggie went to hers. She hurled her jeans, overalls, T-shirts, underwear and shoes into her bag. She carefully placed her best blue dress on top of the pile. It was for the funeral. She took her bag to Skeeter’s room. He was frantically dumping clothes into his bag. When he finished, Maggie checked the contents. Only one pair of underwear, one sock, last year’s blue jeans and seven shirts. She added the missing items. He was trying so hard, but he was only eight and he was frightened. Maggie was scared too.

A little after midnight, Maggie's father returned home from a house fire. He smelled smoky. Mama waited impatiently as he took a shower.

Skeeter sat beside Maggie on the living room couch waiting. Before them loomed a pile of paper bags, pillows and sleeping bags. Mama came into the room and said, "Pack the car."

Immediately Maggie and Skeeter jumped up. They grabbed as much as they could hold and took it outside. With her left hand, Mama held her suitcase, with her right hand, she opened the trunk of their little red Mustang. Maggie stared into the tiny trunk. All their stuff was never going to fit in there. Some how after several trips and a lot of rearranging, everything did fit.

“Get in the car,” Mama said.

Maggie and Skeeter obeyed. Maggie looked out her window at the house next door. Eight years ago Daniel and his family lived there. If they hadn’t, now wouldn't matter. Daniel would just be some stranger Maggie had never heard of, instead of a friend she’d just lost. As she stared at the house, she remembered how Daniel used to push his two younger brothers up and down the driveway in their old red wagon. "Faster! Faster!" John Carl and Billy yelled. Daniel always smiled as he ran. It hurt to think she wouldn’t see that smile again. Some how this couldn’t be true.

When Maggie’s parents got into the car, they left. Ten minutes into the trip, Skeeter’s light brown head slid onto Maggie’s shoulder. She glanced down at his relaxed features. He was asleep. Maggie wished she was.

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For half an hour Maggie tried to force herself to sleep. It was useless. She opened her eyes and looked out her window at the sky. The stars remained constant in spite of the car’s movement. As she stared out at the night, she wondered if Daniel was up there among the stars. Was his soul flying to heaven? Or was he already there? She wondered how long it took to get to heaven. Was death like a journey or like stepping through a door?

In the front seat Mama and Daddy remained silent. Maggie wished they would talk. Their voices might distract her, perhaps even lull her to sleep. If nothing else, she wished they would turn on the radio. She wanted to ask them to, but for some reason she was afraid to break the silence.

Maggie closed her eyes again. She longed for sleep but it wouldn't come. Images kept rushing around exploding in her memory, Daniel's rough knuckles, his freckles, his tousled red hair, his smile, and his laugh. All quiet, all stilled. Hard as she tried, she couldn't feel that he was gone. She had an ache in her chest like a knot. It was very heavy and it made her gasp for air. She tried to think of other things. It was no use. Her tired mind kept returning to Daniel and the past.

Around four a. m. Maggie dropped into fitful sleep. Part of her still heard the sound of the tires as they turned against the pavement. Skeeter sighed in his sleep. For two hours she continued in this state, then the sky began to lighten.

Maggie awoke in the blue light of pre-dawn. As she scrubbed the sleep from her eyes, she wondered why she had been so anxious for time to pass. Now, she wished the sun would never appear. She didn't want to face what this day would hold. She wanted to go back. She wanted to go home. Despite her wishes, the sun burned over the horizon. She squinted and turned away from the window. They would be there soon. If only the sun would sink and hide itself, or better yet take time backwards to yesterday before IT happened. The sun climbed higher and higher.

The red earth beyond Maggie’s window rose and fell in gentle waves. The scrub oak and mesquite trees stood in clumps. The tall brittle grass swayed in the wind. They passed a little cemetery. It contained a fresh grave. Maggie stared at it. Skeeter whispered, "Is it Daniel's?"

"I don't think so," Maggie said as she turned to face him. "They usually don't dig graves until the day of the funeral."

Fifteen minutes later, they left the asphalt highway and turned onto a dirt road. Pale red dust swirled behind the car. Peanut fields flanked the road. Maggie’s father turned into the Will’s drive and stopped the car in front of the cattle gate. Maggie got out and opened the gate for him. From where she stood, she could see the Will’s house. Its bare boards were weathered silver and its tin roof was rusted red. A flash of reflected light caught Maggie's eye. It was the sun upon water. She saw the cattle tank and felt sick. Daniel had died there only yesterday. Quickly she looked away. Daddy drove the Mustang through the gate and Maggie climbed back into the car.

They passed Uncle Woody's trailer and drove down the steep grade where the branch intersected the drive. The branch bottom was dry and sandy from lack of rain. When they crested the hill, Maggie saw Daniel's red and white truck. John Carl's white truck was beside it under the oak tree. Daddy pulled the car under another tree behind the house.