Fearless Read Online Free Page A

“ma’am.”
    Janice and Larry modeled good behavior for their children. If they were out shopping and a woman dropped her coin purse, Janice would pick it up and hand it back. In case her kids missed the point, she would say to them, “If someone drops something, you help them pick it up.” Other golden words of wisdom were taught at opportune moments: “If somebody falls over, you offer them your hand.” “Would youlike it if somebody called you that?” Upon noticing a kid being bullied on the playground, Larry would say, “If you don’t help, you’re no better than the bully.”
    “From those little lessons we tried to pound into them,” says Janice, “some of them stuck.”
    Through hard work and a tight budget, Larry was able to support his family so Janice could be the full-time, dependable, engaged mother she’d never had. But in the late seventies a bad economy took a toll on construction in Arkansas, the main source of income for Larry, and the family’s savings dwindled. On November 4, 1979, just after the evening news announced that five hundred militants had seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Janice and Larry sat down at their dinner table to discuss their own crisis: Larry’s work as an electrician had dried up—he’d collected his final paycheck—and their savings would last little more than a month. Christmas was on the horizon, and with a mortgage
and
a family to feed, Larry had no choice but to follow others in his Arkansas union and find work out of state. He soon left for a four-month contract at a powerhouse in Craig, Colorado.
    The kids really missed their daddy, and while the circumstance was completely different from that of Janice’s childhood, the situation of a missing parent was still sadly reminiscent of work taking precedence over family. But she put on her game face and cheerfully reminded the twins, who were four, that it was temporary, while Shawn, who was nine, learned the family mantra: “You gotta do what you gotta do, and when you’re done, you’ll be stronger.”
    When the contract ended in Colorado, the closest job to home Larry qualified for was a six-month position in Missoula, Montana. Even on a shoestring budget they could barely pay their bills, so Larry began to entertain the idea of selling or renting out their house in Hot Springs and taking the family on the road. He leased a small house in Missoula, left his Bronco in its driveway, and on April Fools’ Day—fifteen years to the day after his first date with Janice—flew back to Hot Springs to drive his family to Montana.
    Be strong
, Janice thought, fighting tears as their house—with a For Sale or Rent sign in the front yard—shrank behind them in the rearview mirror.
We’re together. That’s what’s important
.
    Crammed into the front seat of a U-Haul truck, the Browns traveled light: a stackof mattresses, a wooden porch glider, their television set, and a few boxes of kitchen items, toys, and clothes. They rolled into Missoula the day before Easter, taking less than an hour to unload their belongings. Setting up their bedrooms, which meant plopping mattresses on the floor, could have been a depressing start to their new life, but Janice and Larry were determined to make it business as usual. The next day three delighted kids woke up to find a dusting of snow outside and a trail of candy and Easter baskets hidden throughout the house.
    By the following week, Shawn, Manda, and Adam were back in school and playing sports, Larry was in his new job putting in as much overtime as he could, and Janice was holding them all to a schedule.
    Larry’s contract ended, and the Browns stuck around Missoula long enough for Shawn to finish his baseball season. Then they hitched a horse trailer—loaded with their meager belongings—to the Bronco and headed for Lake Charles, Louisiana. When Larry called his mother, Rosa, to tell her luck was with them and he’d gotten a job at a powerhouse there, she