Standing beneath the peach tree, they stared at each other a full minute. Mrs. Howard had broken off a branch bigger than any she had ever used before. With a heavy switch poised to strike, she started toward Dee Dee..Dee Dee raised her hand. "Wait," she demanded. "I know it won't do any good to tell you that I don't know what this is all about, but I do want you to know that this, here and now. This is the last whipping I'll ever take from you or anyone else. I – – I'm going to run away. It may not be tonight or next week or even next month. But I will go when you least expected."Go ahead and beat me – – beat me all you want. You never love me or wanted me anyway. All you took before was so you'd get the money that came with me…' Dear, precious' Aunt Hetty told me that a long time ago. So – – now you know what I know!"Dee Dee Barker's parents had died during the great influenza epidemic. The relatives had sold the family ranch and divided the children among the aunts and uncles. Four-year-old Dee Dee went from Kansas to a plantation near the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Separated from her sisters and brother, a Yankee in the deepest south, rejected by neighbors and even relatives, the girl struggled to find love and family.