Chapter 2 (incomplete)

Kris sat on the edge of her bed, and with a practiced hand wound the brush through the slight tangles of her waist-length chocolate brown hair. At a height of five-feet and five inches Kris was, by all definitions, a petite woman, with a dancers physique carefully honed by years of indifference and junk food. By all rights there was no reason she should be as lithe as she was, considering how many extra calories she consumed compared to how much physical activity she performed, which happened to amount to very little. Along with her slight frame, Kris had incredibly fair skin, which meant that while tanning was a chore, she could freckle like there was no tomorrow. For the bulk of the year she sported a smattering of freckles on her slight nose and high cheekbones, but come summertime she became a freckled hurricane, developing them wherever the sun kissed her skin. While she never considered herself to be a classic beauty, her deep brown eyes, full lips and tiny ears combined with everything else to form, in her opinion, something quite adorable.

As long as she remained sitting where she was, Kris had a spectacular view of the sun rising over the city. If she were stand up though, the spectacular view would change from a pristine sunset to any number of visages. She had one neighbor, whose window was down and to the left from her own, that worked in the local sex trade. At least Kris assumed she worked in the sex trade, based solely on the large number of people that seemed to frequent the opposing apartment. Kris was not one to judge another human being, but it was hard not to notice what was happening over there, because the woman, whom Kris had dubbed Screamy: the little known eighth dwarf, had a habit of leaving both her window and curtains open. Not only was she able to hear Screamy exuberantly applying her trade, she had, on more than one occasion, accidentally caught sight of transactions in progress.

Kris also had another kind of neighbor, whom she had affectionately named the Homeless Pooper or Pooper for short who always seemed to be dropping trou and using the roof of the neighboring apartments as his personal bathroom whenever Kris approached the window. She wasn't really sure how he kept getting on the roof, or if he even lived in the building, but he always seemed to be there. Kris had learned to keep the window closed and the blinds shut, except during sunrises, when she was fairly certain that Screamy and Pooper were both asleep. However, she didn't take any chances and remained seated during the sunrise, keeping her line of sight free from the joys of the city.

With the sun now hanging brightly in the morning sky, Kris got off the edge of her bed and closed the window and shut her blinds, taking great care not to make any eye contact with windows or the alley below.

    

Kris was the daughter of a travelling evangelist, which meant that most of her life was spent on the road travelling from small town to small town, just her and her father travelling in a beaten up and broken down Winnebago.

Kris' mother died giving birth to her, and all she had was an old wedding picture of her parents to remind her that she ever had a mother. Her father rarely spoke of Kris' mother, always deflecting answers with obvious attempts to change the subject whenever Kris had questions, even going as far as to never telling Kris her mother's name.

Though he never explicitly stated it, Kris was fairly certain that her father wished she had been born a boy. For starters, her birth name, the one that her father had chosen for her was Chris Michael Cherry, which she eventually had changed to Kris Michaela Cherry on her eighteenth birthday.

What Kris was not aware of, was that on the day of her birth her father had been reading the story of Abraham and the promise God gave to him concerning his future son Isaac. Her father had taken this as a sign and promise from God that he was about to have a son. He arrived at the hospital after a tent meeting, expecting to see his wife and newly born son, only to find that his wife and ministry partner was gone, and his son was actually a daughter. Though he never said anything to anyone about this, he often felt that it was some unknown sin in his wife that had caused the promise he was sure God had made to him go awry.

As soon as he was able, he packed up the Winnebago, took his daughter, and headed on to the next town.