“Impossible!” she said. “How can these kids survive in a cypress swamp?”

The civil authorities had been chasing Drexlee, intending to kill her when one of the swamp kids rescued her. Her crime? An exclusive monogamous relationship with a member of the opposite sex. Something that had been outlawed for a couple of years by then.

Glancing around, she noticed an odd calm about the kids. Except for the ragged clothes and unkempt hair, they looked almost contented. Unafraid perhaps. Incredible for a group of homeless orphans! How could teens living anywhere on their own do so well?

“You believe in God?” Arthur, the oldest one, asked her.

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it much lately.”

“Did you ask Him to help you when they were chasing you?”

She looked surprised, wondering how he could know that. “Maybe,” she conceded.

“Well, He obviously did!” He sniggered, and several of the others joined in.

“Yup, she came right to the Lookout Tree and I pulled her up,” Griff the one who saved her said. “What are the odds?”