Where the Red Cardinals Fly

Growing up in the violent hell of one main evil stepfather and subsequent equally worse stepfathers after him, an alcoholic mother, and the reality of Welfare taught Kristina Marie to be tough. Her grandparents visited sometimes and she learned that another name for her hideous stepfather, "Bob," other than "Dad," which she detested calling him, was "Bastard." That's what her grandma called him while gripping her cigarette between her lips tighter than her clenched fist as she talked to her grandpa in their driveway one day, and that's what she would call him from now on. She was proud that at five-years-old she had learned a more descriptive, powerful word. Kristina Marie, named after her grandma, Christine Marie, with the strength and courage of her seven-year-old brother, endure hardships unfathomable to the average mind. They warm themselves by the heat of the oven when the gas runs out of the furnace for weeks at a time, and they help each other when their mom is too drunk or beat up to know where they are or what they are doing. They are as inseparable as the freckles across the tops of their noses. They plan a great escape almost daily to find their real dad in Alaska. Kristina Marie finds hope in red cardinals and often wonders where they fly when winter comes. She wants to fly away too but will have to wait until she can drive or buy a Greyhound bus ticket. She knows that red cardinals fly away when the winters get too harsh to a place of warmth and peace and she too is determined to find the place - Where the Red Cardinals Fly.