Be Not Far from Me

As the man calls 911, the woman walks Ashley back to the service truck, and Ashley notices the license plate is from Georgia. She learns from that woman that she is in Georgia and realizes she walked there from Tennessee. The woman introduces herself as Tammy and gives Ashley food and water. Ashley cries as multiple emotions hit her at once: the joy of being safe, confusion about who she’s become, and the thought of seeing her friends and family again. As Tammy and the man, Paul, drive Ashley to where the service road hits the state route, Ashley is overwhelmed by how quickly the trees rush by, unused to the speed of a car after moving so slowly on foot. Tammy shows her a news clip on her phone of Ashley’s dad begging “someone, please, to bring his little girl back to him” (190). Paramedics meet them at the state route and start to assess Ashley’s wounds, including her partially amputated foot. Ashley struggles to explain what happened to the paramedics, only managing to say that she was lost and that “[t]he world is not tame” (215).

Once at the hospital, Ashley sets aside her pride and lets the nurses take care of her. After taking a shower, she feels like a new person, not only physically but also mentally. Ashley’s dad arrives, looking thin and distraught, and comforts her after they reunite. Someone started a donation fund online for Ashley’s medical bills, and Ashley quickly becomes famous for her survival. Many reporters want to talk to her, but she refuses to talk to any of them at first, not wanting to be judged for her Tennessee accent. Kavita and Meredith visit, and Ashley knows that once she’s healthy and off the medications she has received at the hospital, she will tell them all the things she knows need to be said. Duke visits eventually as well, and he tells Ashley how hard he looked for her and how sorry he is. Ashley tells him he isn’t her boyfriend anymore, which he accepts.

When Ashley gets home, several reporters are waiting for her, but she still refuses to talk to them. Instead, she contacts Davey Beet’s parents and tells them about finding their son, giving Davey’s mom what’s left of the hat his mom made for him. The cross-country coach from the college to which she had a scholarship comes to visit and shares the sad news that her full ride scholarship is withdrawn. The school offers a partial scholarship in its place, but it’s not enough for what Ashley can afford. Ashley decides to talk to a local reporter and share her story, and she does, holding nothing back. She tells the “ugly truth about all of it” (228), and the story is published in the local paper. A few days later, she gets a call from an outdoors outfitting company that wants to sponsor her as a spokesperson, and she takes the offer.

A year later, Ashley graduates from high school. By then, she’s talked to everyone she planned to and said the things she wanted to say. Although her conversations with friends and family don’t make her relationships perfect, she recognizes that people and relationships are complicated but worth fighting for. She’s a new person in many ways, with new goals. In the spring, she stands at a trailhead with top-of-the-line gear from her sponsorship and sets out to find Davey’s body and bring him home.