Chapter 6 - Shunned
Mel
12:10 Monday afternoon, February 16th
I realized who Katie’s parents were as soon as I pulled into the address I’d gotten from the worker at WIC. The Hershberger’s ran a little store at the front of their property that sold bent and dent items and overstock that the area grocery stores couldn’t sell at full retail. My family had been long time patrons of theirs, especially for the cereal and snack food items Beth and Cole always scarfed down within minutes of buying it, it seemed.
I parked in the only spot I could find where I wouldn’t be stepping out of my SUV into horse dung and the muddy mess of a winter that was slowly winding down and I picked my way over to the door.
An older teenaged boy was busy shoveling coal into a homemade heating unit not very far f
