Saving Katie Baker Read Free Page B

looking forward to her time off now that the neighbor had gotten friendly all of the sudden.
    The drive to her and her daughter’s preschool was silent, just what she needed to relax and become centered. This countryside was so peaceful: Alabama the beautiful. It made sense that her husband would choose to move them here. It really was a gorgeous state.
    Katie remembered hating him for it in the beginning. Phil Campbell, Alabama was his home, where he grew up—not hers. She was scared to death of the country. She never could understand the attraction to it, the slang voices and horrific music. She was often angry with him at first for taking her, the city girl, away from her father, her only family member, and moving her to the middle of nowhere. She didn’t understand it then, but she knew she loved him.
    “You can’t help whom you love,” her father used to say. And she had fallen in love with a country boy.
    Katie was only fourteen when she’d first met him, it was her first year in high school and he was a year older. As the new kid in school and with a bad boy look to him, he seemed very mysterious. All the girls wanted to be his, yet she was the lucky one because he chose her. She still couldn’t recall why.
    It didn’t take long for the two of them to become inseparable. He was her best friend. They were on track for the fairytale romance you only hear about in the movies until the pink stick gave them a positive sign just before graduation. They hadn’t planned on having children that early, they hadn’t planned on getting married that early, but they did. This meant art school for Katie had to be put on hold for a few years in order to raise a baby.
    Those nine months were the happiest of Katie’s life. Even though she wasn’t excited about having a baby instead of going to college, and even when her husband accepted the job in Alabama just after her high school graduation. It didn’t matter to Katie, she was still so happy. She knew that having their own little house and their own little family would make everything perfect and make up for the lack of schooling. And it had, for a while.
    As Katie neared the preschool entrance she ran through the list of things she wanted to get done today. There was so much to do that, as usual, she began to feel a bit overwhelmed. Lists were supposed to be helpful but lately they felt suffocating. What’s the point of them if not much gets checked off other than work and keeping Micah alive?
    Katie took a deep breath and decided to smile—she was determined that today would be different than yesterday. Today was going to be a marvelous day, with lots of surprises in store. She wondered if believing this would actually make it come true. One could only hope.
    Katie drove around to the back of the school where most of the staff parked their vehicles and found her normal designated spot. Most of the teachers had already arrived. She even spotted Jill’s little silver Volkswagen bug with the bright yellow flower showing through the windshield.
    “Oh boy,” she said and sighed.
    After she dropped Micah off at the classroom for one-and-two-year-olds, she walked to her own room. These rare moments of quiet solitude, before all the children arrived in her class and set things in motion was one of Katie’s favorite parts of the day. It was almost zen-like to sit and meditate before the kids came running in.
    Today, her solitude was interrupted, as she had expected, by her friend. She saw Jill down the hall heading her way. Katie quickly attempted to sneak away from her without being noticed and bolted into her classroom. Her mission failed.
    Jill spotted her and came running into the room after her. She closed the door, and with a giddy school-girl grin began pleading, “Tell me everything!” She grabbed Katie’s arm and sat her down in one of the child size chairs, smirking as she waited.
    “Just like I said this morning, there’s nothing to tell. I can’t stand