Synopsis

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At five years old, Stephanie lives with her parents in Las Vegas, and is especially close to her father, who’s a long-haul trucker, and spends all his time when he’s home being her best buddy. Very early one morning, Stephanie’s dad is in the driveway, fixing a leaking tire on his car, when her mom wakes her up from where she’s sleeping on the couch, saying, “Someone is in the house!” Her mom barricades both of them in her bedroom, as a strange man starts banging insistently on the bedroom door, repeating “Let me in, please let me in.” Stephanie’s mom screams back at him, telling him to go away, Stephanie hears police sirens, then a blood-curdling scream. When the police rescue her and her mother through the back bedroom window and bring them around to the front of the house, the events start becoming more clear: a criminal on the run from the cops stole a car, crashed it outside their house, then ran into the house to try to escape. The stream of policemen and canines chasing him immediately saw Stephanie’s dad sticking halfway out from under the car he was repairing, assumed he was the escaped convict, and the canines attacked him, completely shredding one of his legs. Stephanie ran to him in the ambulance, and despite the blood he was losing, reassured her that he was going to be okay. The determination Stephanie’s parents showed in holding the family together and creating resilience instead of giving in to the disaster surrounding them shaped Stephanie, and has stayed with her to this day.