One soft step.
Adonie came onto the porch. She stood looking away toward the barn with her hands in her pockets.

 

The muscles of my shoulders, arms, and neck twisted up tightly at this invasion. At this exposure. I felt as though she could see all the raw ugliness of my life, my origins and my deeds.
She sat on the top step, too, but at the far side, leaning a shoulder against the post, and her eyes came to rest in mine. They were darker than ever in the growing shadow here, dark as shadowed tree bark.
"What were they like?" she asked. It was a simple question, quietly asked.

 

It struck up rage through me like a lance of lightning up, down, crackling all through me in an instant. I plunged away, hating her audacity, striding straight out into the open green away from house, barn, everything.
Looking back once, in the distance Adonie was still sitting there, still following me with her eyes.