Her mother also raised her by teaching her the bare essentials in survival in this world and made her feel like everything she did helped something in one way or another. In Missy's years after graduation she had a job at the hospital from which she used the money to help her mother pay rent and the bills, yet she managed to save up enough money to buy herself a "55 Volkswagen bug. When she came home with the car her mother taught her everything she would need to know about owning a car. "Well, if you"re going to have an old car you"re going to know how to drive an old car.".
Her mother made sure that she was going to be responsible for everything that could go wrong with that car, while in her mind she knew that this was the icing on the cake for Missy's journey out of Pittman. .
Missy began her journey to her new life when she decided that if she was going to start a new life she would need a new name. This new name is symbolic of her new found independence, "I suppose you could say I had some part in choosing this name, but there was enough of destiny to satisfy me.".
During Taylor's driving her car suddenly gave out and she had to stop for some repairs. Taylor stopped in at a truck stop for something to eat and then decided to be on her way. While she was leaving a native lady came to her car and placed her child in the passenger seat and told Taylor to take the baby. Taylor at first didn't know what to do but she dealt with her problem by herself and throughout the story began to love this little girl as her own and eventually adopted her. Taylor ended up in Tucson, Arizona at the end of her journey and she needed to find a job and a place to stay, fast. When she arrived in Tucson she had a flat tire that she stops to get fixed at "Jesus Is Lord Used Tires" where she met Mattie. Mattie is woman who has been through the whole family deal and now lives on her own and runs this tire shop by herself.