Katie photo © Drew Herron
Background photo © Kalvis Kalsers

Lost in the Hills is the first published excerpt from Katie’s diary. From the Journal of Katie McCabe was added to the beginning of Nowhere Feels Like Home as an excerpt from Katie’s diary to help bring any new readers who hadn’t read Misfit McCabe up to speed. Lost in the Hills is an expansion of the original journal entry.

The inclusion of the piece in Diary of a Misfit was an easy decision to make—it was the reason I knew Katie kept a diary. And I have always been ambivalent about it as a part of Nowhere Feels Like Home, not because I didn’t like it, but I am not a fan of prologues. I had woven in the information into the opening chapter of Nowhere Feels Like Home and it felt redundant to tack the diary excerpt to the beginning. But I have people I trust to guide me when I become confused about what should or should not be in the work. And they voted for it to stay, and since I was on the fence—it stayed. We all need a little outside objectivity from time to time.

The expansion includes more of Katie’s feelings about being abducted, nearly drowning, and trying to get home against some steep odds. Teaser: After moving in with her Uncle Charley, and cousins, Matt, Mark, and Sarah, Katie McCabe is excited to finally have her journal unpacked. So much has happened in the week since she’d left home, she doesn’t know where to start.

Diary of a Misfit is available now for Kindle. A portion of the proceeds from Diary of a Misfit will go to the Shaka Franklin Foundation for Youth.

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This is a picture of Samuel Hayes. He died last week, probably because he had too much to drink. He was sixteen-years-old, only a couple years older than me. I didn’t know Samuel. We don’t live in the same town, but his story hit me hard. He looks like a nice guy, and sixteen is too young to die.

Samuel drowned in a river, and when they did the autopsy on him, his blood alcohol level (BAC) was 0.27!!! Apparently someone bought him some whiskey and it would take about 10 drinks to make his blood alcohol level that high. That’s a lot of whiskey. All I know is after the graduation ceremony at his school, he was given a half-gallon of whiskey and wound up dead.

I think why this story hit me so hard is that it could have been me. Tim and I got lucky when we tried drinking. He took some of his dad’s rum and we nearly burned Mr. Pickford’s shed down. It could have been so much worse. We both lived, and the shed didn’t burn out of control. It was still scary though.

I think another reason why I really feel for Samuel is that he drowned in a river. And having nearly drowned after Harvey left me blindfolded, gagged, and bound in a river, I wonder if Samuel panicked like I did. Or whether he was too drunk to know that he was drowning. I hope in a way he didn’t know. Those moments in the river will stay with me forever. It was awful, and I don’t like to think of him going through the same thing.

Sixteen is too young to die. There was too much ahead for him that he now won’t do. Something for us all to think about.

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