The Power of Testimony

Chapter 1
“Mom, can I go with Johnto the department store?”
Beverly asked, holding up a blouse on a hanger. “I want to
exchange this blouse before our trip tomorrow.”
She stood in the doorway of the girls’ bedroom in their
900- square-​foot house in Mishawaka, Indiana. The seven-​
member Gilvin family was getting ready to head “down
home to Kentucky,” as they put it, to visit relatives on Aunt
Beulah’s farm.
“Oh, Bevie, don’t do that now,” Bev’s mom, Betty, said.
“We’re getting everything ready. You don’t need a new blouse
anyway.”
“But I don’t want to wear this white one down at the
farm,” Bev said with a level of concern only a ninth-​grade girl
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