I WAS FOURTEEN, the oldest in the class. At fourteen most girls left school, but nobody said anything so I kept going. I helped Mr. Cuzlin with the little kids. He said I was right smart, that I should think about going to normal school and become a teacher.
“You’d have to go to Wirt County in West Virginia to school,” he said. “They’re turning out good teachers there and many will be teaching here in Kentucky.”
I thanked him for his interest. “But I can’t go to school in West Virginia,” I said.
“If you pass the exam, you won’t have to worry about tuition. I’ll see to it that you don’t.”
“It isn’t that.” I looked at him. “No McCoy goes into West Virginia. They’d be shot dead in their tracks. Just yesterday my brother Jim and a deputy were caught there hunting Hatfields. Old Devil Anse made them kneel. Said they were going to die. The other deputy knelt, but not Jim. He opened his shirt and said, ‘Shoot. I’d just as lief die standing on my feet.’”
“But he wasn’t shot, was he?” Mr. Cuzlin said.
“No sir. Because Devil Anse said he was too brave. I’m not brave. They’d shoot me.”
He looked so sad then. “Well,” he said. “Maybe when this trouble is over. Think on it.”
If he’d said I should go to Paris, France, it couldn’t have been stranger to me. “I can’t conjure up a life away from my family, Mr. Cuzlin. Besides, I’m Ma’s mainstay. Alifair is gone most of the time on her healing missions. Adelaide’s working with Aunt Cory to become a granny woman. Ma faints a lot. She needs me.”
He said something funny then. “Fanny,” he said, “sometimes we don’t have to leave in order to get away. Sometimes all we have to do is choose.”