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Anouk looks down at her own long skirt and long-sleeved shirt.
“You could wear some of my clothes,” I offer. “Edith and I are also going shopping in a few days. You could come along.”
“I have no money.”
“Neither do I, but Ike does, and he says I can use it.”
Anouk glances back inside the house, where Ike joins his sister in the kitchen.
“He’s everything you said.”
Smiling, I remember all the times I whispered to Anouk about my moonshine man.
“Ike loves me. We’re common law married, which is a real thing. Though he said with my paperwork that we can get law-law married now.”
Anouk’s blue eyes study me. “I don’t want to have sex with a biker.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t want to go home.”
“You can stay here.”
Anouk sighs. “I don’t want to be married.”
“No one here will make you do that.”
Nodding, Anouk is confused about the outside world’s rules. I don’t blame her. I still don’t understand most things.
“I’m sorry I left you,” I say after thinking of Jarin kissing her.
“I couldn’t have fit on Ike’s motorcycle, even if you wanted me to come along.”
Grinning, I take her hand and stand up. “Let’s go get you different clothes.”
My sister touches my hair, breathing faster. “Let’s cut off my hair, too.”
“I don’t know how to do that. We can go to the lady who cut mine.”
Over the next hour, I tell Anouk about everything from my first barbecue bacon burger to my haircut before reaching the part where I couldn’t handle moonshine.
“You sounded demonic last night,” she announces while looking in the mirror at herself in a pair of jeans and a pink T-shirt. “But you were also so happy.”
“I don’t think I can handle moonshine. I might try pot, though. I like feeling good.”
Anouk hugs me so tight that I can barely breathe. “I can’t ever go back. They said such awful things about you once you ran away. I know they’re saying the same things about me.”
“You don’t need to,” I reply, cradling her. “There are options on the homestead. You can figure out what you want to do next.”
My words feel like false promises to Anouk. She didn’t enjoy our old life, fitting in worse than I did. But she also never craved going wild. She just wanted to be left alone.
Right now, Anouk worries she can only find freedom through a man. Just like how church women only found fulfillment through marriage. She can’t imagine any other way.
No matter her fears, Anouk will understand better soon. Ike’s entire family is coming to town for their OG Peepaw’s birthday party. In a few days, she’ll be surrounded by many different women who took separate paths to make their dreams come true.
