Runaway — William Tedford

     Shannon and Toby often trek a mile through a snake-infested woods to visit Skip Bateman, a hermit with a bad reputation who keeps a family of dogs, one of which will center the lives of Shannon and Toby during summer vacation. When Toby's condition deteriorates, he is destined for the Caldwell Hospital for Children across the entire span of the state. The bickering adults of Shannon and Toby's life conspire to spirit the boy away from his best friend and newly acquired blue-eyed Lab name Sky, a move that infuriates Shannon who fears for Toby's life without the animal he so desperately loves. 

     So, Shannon runs away from home to deliver Sky to Toby, and her adventures on her journey to Caldwell rattle the nerves of parents and law enforcement as she evades an Amber Alert, falls into the clutches of an elderly couple enslaving those they hope to take the place of a long lost daughter, falls in love with a biker outlaw who unintentionally entangles her in a business deal gone bad, and then stumbles into the clutches of truly malevolent psychopaths who will wish they had never encountered an enterprising and dangerous little girl named Shannon and her blue-eyed Black Lab, Sky.

     The ending of the story is both predictable and an unpredictable example of how the best of humanity gather in self-defense of the worse that can befall us.