January 1989-

Daryl and Skyla, now both nine-years-old, hunkered down in the old school bus seat together, a small bag of BBQ chips, from Skyla's lunch, propped open between them. It was snowing outside and school had ended early that day because of it.

Skyla was looking through a copy of Tiger Beat magazine and sighing over the pictures of the teen idols in there. Daryl was reading a Chronicles of Narnia novel, which were his most favorite books. He and Skyla would often go in the woods surrounding the trailer court and play like they were in Narnia. That's what he had been doing that day last summer when he had gotten lost. Merle was still in the boy's home and his Daddy was off with some woman. Skyla and Mee-Maw were spending two weeks in Macon with some family they had there. No one had known he was even gone, but he'd toughed it out and made it home again. He never told anyone about it, not even Skyla.

"You think I'd be pretty if I wore my hair like this?" She was showing him a picture of Madonna, her hair cut super short like a boys. Daryl shook his head.

"Girls are supposed to have long hair." He said. He wrapped a strand of hers, that shiny wheat blonde he saw in his sleep, around his finger. "I like your hair the way it is."

"Well, well, well," A booming voice made them both jump. "What have we here? Darylena and his little girlfriend."

Daryl raised his head a fraction of an inch, slipping his novel into his backpack before his brother saw it. "Shut up, Merle."

Merle, already tall and muscular, slid into the seat in front of them. He flicked Daryl on the head. "Don't tell me to shut up, little brother." He said. "Tryin' to show off for your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend." Daryl insisted. It was an old fight.

"Why not?" Merle asked. "She's a pretty little thing. Honey, you wanna be my girlfriend?"

"Pass." Skyla said without even looking up from her magazine. It was one the things that Daryl loved about her. She treated Merle like he wasn't even there, and that drove Merle nuts. She held out the bag of chips to him. "Here, take these and be gone, before someone drops a house on you too."

"What? What house?" Merle's face was screwed up in confusion. Daryl, who had gotten the reference, dropped his head to hide his smile.

At the entrance to the trailer court, over half the bus emptied. Daryl pulled his sockcap low over his head, and pulled his coat tighter around him.

"Fuck its cold!" Merle caught up with them, his breath coming out in white puffs as he spoke.

"Y'all come on over to my house." Skyla said. "Mee-maw will make us some hot chocolate."

Daryl nodded. Mee-Maw made her hot cocoa homemade, none of the Swiss Miss package shit. It was always delicious.

"Well, I'm supposed to meet up with Andrew and Mikey…" Merle started and Skyla swatted him on the arm, the only person who he would let get away with such things.

"Oh, them damn rednecks can wait a bit, can't they?" She asked. Even at nine-years-old, she was lovely and Daryl didn't like the way he saw Merle's friends, even Merle himself, looking at her sometimes.

"Oh, I guess they can." Merle draped a heavy arm across Skyla's shoulders and she laughed. Daryl felt his stomach swoop.

"You children get in here!" Mee-maw was calling from the front door and the three of them rushed through the quickly falling snow into the warmth of the trailer. "Shoes off, don't be trackin' up the carpet! That goes for you too, Merle Dixon!"

"Yes, Ma'am." Even Merle, who had little respect for anyone, listened up when Mee-Maw spoke. He slipped his heavy boots off and let them by the front door with the others.

"Now, I got some hot chocolate already heating up for you." She said. She was a tiny woman, barely five feet, with short curls that she kept colored her natural brown and eyes the same gray as Skyla's.

Daryl knew that he'd spend the rest of the day and probably the night here, but he didn't know what Merle was going to get up to. He hoped his brother would stay out of trouble, but if he was running with Andrew and Mikey, he doubted it.

And, true to his word, Merle drank one cup of chocolate, ate three sugar cookies and was gone. Daryl breathed a sigh of relief. His brother had been all right, even nice, that day, but most days he did everything in his power to make Daryl miserable.

"Wanna play Mario?" Skyla asked after they had eaten. She'd gotten the Nintendo for Christmas, the only thing she'd asked for, and Daryl was extremely jealous, but glad he at least got to play with hers.

"Yeah!"

"One hour, you two!" Mee-Maw said. "Then its time for my stories to come on."

"Fine." Skyla sighed.

They played for exactly an hour, and then Mee-Maw shooed them outside into the freezing wonderland that was their trailer park. Daryl hurried into his own trailer to slip his coveralls on.

"Who's that?" He father called out and Daryl held his breath.

"Just me, Daddy." He said. "I came in to put my coveralls on. It's snowin' out."

"Why…why ain't you in school?" Aaron Dixon asked, narrowing his eyes at his youngest son.

Why ain't you at work? Were the words he wanted so badly to fling back in the old man's face, but he didn't. "They let us out early 'cause of the snow." He said instead. "And they cancelled school for tomorrow too."

"I don't believe you." Aaron came towards him again and Daryl braced himself for the beating he knew was coming. "If they cancelled school, where's Merle?"

"He's already run off with his buddies." Daryl bit back a cry as his dad grabbed his upper arm.

"I'm sick of you lyin' to me, boy!"

"Hey, Daryl, ready to go?" Skyla bounced through the front door like nothing was wrong. Dressed in her hot pink snowsuit, purple coat, and her sockcap with the kitty cat face on it, she looked completely out of place in the dingy mobile home. "Oh hey, Mr. Dixon." She said. "Pretty cool about the snow day, huh?"

She looked up at the old man with wide gray eyes and he nodded his head and let go of Daryl, who scampered off down the hallway to his room to get his coveralls on.

He could hear Skyla in the living room, blathering on to his dad about something. He didn't know how she did it. She could just stand there and talk to the old man like it was the most natural thing in the world. And he'd talk back to her, that was the real kicker! She could stand there all day, asking him the simplest questions and he'd answer them. Daryl didn't understand it. He barely spoke two words to him or Merle, unless it was to yell at them. Maybe it was because Skyla was a girl? He didn't know.

When he came back down the hall, he was surprised to see his Daddy reach out and touch Skyla's hair. "You look like your Mama." He told her. She nodded, clearly shocked, but trying not to show it.

"That's what they tell me." She said.

"I knew your Mama, from years back." He said. "Went to school with her, but I was a lot a grades ahead of her. She was pretty girl. You're a pretty girl."

"Thank you." Skyla dropped her eyes.

"Ready, Sky?" Daryl asked loudly.

"Oh, yes." She said, her face brightening when she saw him. "I'll see you around, Mr. Dixon." She said. She slipped her gloved hand into Daryl's and they walked out into the snow together.

"Be careful!" Aaron said behind them and when Daryl turned around he saw that his Daddy was not looking at him, but at Skyla.

"What was that?" He asked. "All that talk about your Mom?"

Skyla shrugged as they struggled through the snow together. "I dunno." She said. "But it was kinda creepy, wasn't it?"

Daryl nodded but didn't say anything.

"I mean, I knew that he knew her, but to bring her up out of the blue…weird." Skyla shook her head. "And he touched my hair. I don't think he's ever touched me before."

"Yeah, weird." Daryl decided he didn't like the look on his Daddy's face when he looked at Skyla. He didn't like it one bit.