Maybel's eyes were green, but saw red. Her blood was red, but coursed blue under the skin. The dog was brown, but he was dissolving in the well, broken up into his constituent parts when Maybel returned several months later. His predominent color was now gray.

 She took a bite of her jerky.

 "Grace," she said with a mouthful of meat, "I thought I told you to fetch the water. Get the hell out of there." She peered into the well and saw the decomposition already in progress. "And all you brought me was bones." She spat into the well. "Looks like I'll have to do it myself." She rolled up the pant cuffs of her overalls and rolled up the sleeves of her polka dot blouse and jumped into the well, landing on the pooch. "Jesus Christ this is warm" she said, and took a big whiff. She was treading water and felt something brush by her leg, something rather wispy and ghostly. She grabbed it with her toe, took a deep breath, and grabbed it out of her toe. It was locks of hair that were brown, but she knew they were blond. 

"Jesus Christ, Grace, I told you not to shave your head. It makes you look like a dyke." She dropped the hair back into the water. "And now look what you made me do, now I'm stuck down here with the dog and your nappy hair. Grace. GRACE!" she shouted. Several seconds later, a face peered down at Maybel from the top of the well. 

"Maybel, I'm done. We're through. I can't take this anymore. This is **** up. Soon someone's gonna find out and - "

"You are a coward, Grace, you know that? A real bitch. You couldn't have said that to me face to face. You had to wait until I was six feet down here to say that because you know I'd kick your **** and you'd be the one down here."

"May - Maybel, this is what I mean. I don't want this anymore. I don't want...what you want."

"That's not what you told me last night when I was fingering your cu--" 

"Maybel! I'm leaving." Grace's eyes filled with tears and she started to put the wooden lid on the well, eclipsing the sun to Maybel and the remains of Max, the dog. 

"Grace, you look like a dyke without your hair, you know."

Grace rubbed her bald head and set the wooden lid in place, and put bricks on top of it. She wept openly now, and walked up the path to the house, got in the truck, and drove downtown to her mother's. Once there, she unlocked the door - she still had the key - and saw her mother cooking in the kitchen.

"Gracie!" She exclaimed and ran over to give her a hug, sputtering and breathless.

"I'm home, Ma. And I'm fine."

* * * * * * * 

Grace slept soundly that night, and awoke to the sound of her mother quietly saying her name.

"Gracie, honey, get up...pancakes are done!"

Grace yawned, stretched, opened her eyes, and screamed.

"I'm gonna **** you up like a ragdoll. You could never do anything right."

Maybel punched a vulnerable, still sleepy Grace, breaking her nose. She tore off Grace's tank top, revealing her bare chest with its many scars, some still not completely healed.

"Maybel, no! My mother, she -"

"Your mother is all washed up, Gracie darling." Maybel emitted a light chuckle.

"Maybel, you didn't. Not my mother!" Her speech was distorted as blood rushed down her nasal cavity and down her throat. Her vision was blurry from the tears and sweat that now soaked her. Maybel grabbed Grace's ankle and pulled her off the bed with a superhuman strength that Grace had seen manifested many a night, but had never experienced herself.

She gritted her teeth and let the adrenaline fuel her racing thoughts as she tried desparately to think of an escape. She knew Maybel better than anyone else, and like all people, Maybel had her own weaknesses.

She knew she only had 15 minutes to execute the escape. She only had 15 minutes to live.