by Dixie Waldrip

Excerpt from Hide and Go Seek; Searching for Me, the personal account of one mother's perilous journey to protect her six children, which catapulted her not only into the realities of an unprotective society, but also into her unknown past.

By Dixie Waldrip. Available through Harmony West Publishing, harmony@sirius.com

Prologue

I lay in the stillness of the night, gently rolling on the waterbed whenever my daughter or son turned in fitful sleep.

My cousin's house was quiet, as if it were content with the winter evening. There had been a nourishing supper with convivial conversation. Dishes were washed, food put up, and counters left sparkling. The fire in the den overlooking the lake was banked, and the binoculars were back in their place on the coffee table. Everyone was snuggled between clean sheets in lovely bedrooms. Pine trees bowed ever so slightly over the house as if to protect it from any harm.

But I couldn't sleep. Things had been so hectic, so terrifying, that I had been on automatic the last few weeks. Now sleep eluded me, forcing me to stare into the face of my questions.

How in the world had I come to be hiding in my cousin's house ? I remembered when she was a young teenager and moved with her family to Moses Lake. We had eagerly showed her family our new home and the haystacks and willow trees. I fast-forwarded through the years to living in Europe as a young bride, driving to the East German border to have Thanksgiving with her and her young Air Force family. Now I was being pursued by the husband I had eagerly introduced to them.

All I had ever wanted to be was a good wife and mother. I had brought six children into the world, and the man I adored now had four of them. I was desperately trying to save the last two.

I felt the smooth pillowcase under my aching head. I thought of the fresh pillowslips I had burrowed into as a child, full of the smell of the crisp air flapping them on the clothesline.

What happened? How did I get from there to here? What went wrong? I'd done everything right. I'd followed every teaching I was taught. I had the ideal childhood in the perfect home . . . .

By Dixie Waldrip.

Available through Harmony West Publishing, harmonyw@pacbell.net

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