Shelter

One midnight when I was about sixteen and watching the late movie with Dad, I started to nod off. He rocked my shoulder. "Listenup," he said, pointing to the screen. I propped up to peer past the bowl of old maids to see Mr. O'Hara, redder than usual, lecturing Scarlett.

". . . land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dying for, because land is the only thing that lasts!"

Sarah Stonich's family had once owned land—an island in Lake Vermilion that was lo...