Crawford Langley's Prayer for His Father

Crawford Langley broke through the maze of dark woods. There, set in his space to look familiar with a house he guessed was his own old house. In all his years he'd never seen it completely dark. Hadn't he and his father left it well lit? The boy was past the child's automatic fears of false and darkness. It came to him now that, in this house, the man who left him alone by the river was hid and ready. But also knew there was nowhere else.