Authors: Priscilla Cummings
The Journey Back (18 page)
I nodded my thanks again to this bighearted man I had wronged and who I didn't even know. This man who was giving me a second chance.
Incredible. A second chance. A chance to really start over. A chance to give back and lead a good life . . .
Was it possible that one day I could make up someâif only a littleâfor the life I had taken from a three-year-old boy?
At the Deep Valley Juvenile Detention Center, where I started a new, ten-month gig and walked around all day in slippers, I once again had a bed with scratchy blankets in a row with eleven other beds. In between my bed and the next was a tall gray metal locker for my toothbrush and a change of clothes. Only this time, I had something to tape up inside the locker door. I had that picture LeeAnn drew of a rainbowâwith me on one side, and home on the other.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have many people to thank for helping me research this book. First on my list are the teachers, counselors, administratorsâand boysâat Backbone Mountain and Meadow Mountain Youth Centers, two juvenile detention centers in western Maryland run by the Maryland State Department of Juvenile Services. Michael Lewis, principal for the youth centers; David Symanski, lead teacher; Mari Freno, mental health counselor; and Barbara Miltenberger, reading specialist, were especially helpful.
I thank Mark Livingston, a therapist at Potomac Ridge School in Crownsville, Maryland, for helping me begin to understand the challenges of treating young people who get in trouble. And I am grateful to Judith Hale, a reading specialist in Frederick County, Maryland, for her special insights.
I appreciate the education in garbage truck operations from Mike Doherty of Waste Management in Columbia, Maryland. And I thank a big rig truck driver, who wishes to remain anonymous, for teaching me how to throw the splitter and drive an eighteen-wheeler. (No one has to worryâ I won't be going for my Class B license anytime soon.)
For the information they provided, I thank the U.S. National Park Service, the Maryland Highway Administration, the Maryland State Police, the Maryland State's Attorney's Office, and John McNeece of the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute in College Park.
To all of the devoted, hardworking people at Days End Farm, a horse rescue facility in Woodbine, Maryland, a big thank youâespecially Sue Miller, Pam Wheeler, and Brittney Carow. They are bighearted miracle workers.
Family friend and outdoorsman Bill Lane has my appreciation for his detailed lesson in field dressing a deer. And once again, I thank former Maryland State Senator John Bambacus and his wife, Karen, residents of western Maryland, for their hospitalityâand their thoughts.
I wish to acknowledge the information I gleaned from the
U.S. Army Survival Handbook
, revised and updated by Sergeant First Class Matt Larsen; and the charming, readable guide
The C&O Canal Companion
, by Mike High. Hiking or biking on any part of the beautiful, restored canal towpath from Georgetown to Cumberland, Maryland, is a step back in time and an enchanting experience.
Finally, to all the readers of
Red Kayak
who raised their hands, e-mailed, and wrote wanting to know what happened to the boys, I thank you, too, because without your interest and inspiration, I would not have gone back to Digger.
