Fiction Friday

Running Away

             Mama slapped him for saying “shit.”  He had been trying out all sorts of words like that for weeks, but never in front of Mama.  I didn’t really understand why she hit him.  After all, she was the one that he’d heard say it in the first place.  But she did.  Then, with a few dirty words of her own, she dragged him down the hall and told him to stay in his room for the rest of the night.  I followed on her heels and realized that I was standing on the wrong side of the door the second that she slammed it.

             I sat down Indian style under the window and ran Hot Wheels cars over my legs while I watched Jonathan toss cards into a baseball cap.

            “I wish we could go to Granny’s.”

            Jonathan propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at me from the bed.  “We can’t go anywhere,” he said.  “Don’t you ever listen, Jess?”

            I listened more than any of them knew.  I was the only one that heard Daddy tell Mama that he wanted a divorce and that he was going to take me and Jonathan and David away.  Daddy caught me crying later, when he came to kiss me goodnight before he went to work, and I told him what I’d heard.  He said that Mama loved us, but that she couldn’t take care of us like we needed her to, so he was going to take us to Granny’s big farm where we could run and play and always be safe.

            I had dreamed about a big farm that night.  The next morning, I woke up when I heard someone banging on the door.  David answered it because he couldn’t wake Mama up.  He didn’t know I was listening, but I heard the policeman tell him that Daddy had been in a bad wreck.

            I heard Mama sneak her boyfriend into the house that same night.  I heard him say they would rob a gas station in the next town, and I heard them laughing because they got away with it while they counted their money.

            “I listen,” I said, pouting and crossing my arms over my chest.

            “Whatever.”  Jonathan fell back across the bed and picked up his baseball and David’s old glove.  He tossed the ball into the air, dangerously close to the dusty globe on the ceiling fan, and caught it just inches above his face.  I didn’t have anything better to do, so I started counting.

            The forty-sixth time he tossed the ball, something slid in the gravel in front of the house.  Jonathan jumped up to look out the window and the ball landed on the plywood floor with a thud.  “It's Lenny,” he muttered.

            Lenny was Mama's boyfriend.  He was skinny, with long, dirty looking blonde hair and a long nose.  I always hated it when Lenny came over.  It usually meant that the den was going to be full of funny smelling smoke and that the TV was going to be turned up too loud and that Mama was going to laugh at things that weren’t funny.  Plus, Lenny liked to touch my hair.  He would tug at the ends of my ponytail and smile at me around the cigarette that was always hanging from his lips.

            “You really want to go to Granny’s?” Jonathan asked.

            I nodded.

            “Then let’s go.”

            “But, I thought…”

            Jonathan shushed me and looked back out the window where Lenny was showing Mama his new motorcycle.  “Get some clothes,” he whispered.  “Hurry.”

            I pulled my only pair of blue jeans and some tattered shorts out of a drawer and stacked them on the bed.  “You better get a jacket, too,” Jonathan said.  He took all my clothes and shoved them into his backpack with his ball and David’s glove.  “I’ll be right back,” he said.  “Stay here.”

            I listened to the old floors of the trailer creak while he tiptoed down the hall.  He came back a few minutes later with two Pop-tarts and a couple cans of Coke.  He shoved them into a smaller backpack and handed it to me.  “You need anything else?”

            I looked around the room and tried to remember if there was anything worth taking with me.  We always had nice things when Daddy was there, but when he died, Mama sold most of our stuff.  I pulled a little box out from under the bed and tucked it into my bag.  “What’s in there?” Jonathan asked.

            “A necklace that Daddy gave me.”

            Jonathan tugged a book out from under the mattress and took out his favorite baseball cards.  “Put these in there, too.”  He shoved his baseball cap into his bag and zipped it up.

            “Are we gonna leave David a note so he can find us?”

            Jonathan shook his head.  “He’ll know where we are.”  He crouched by the door and put his finger over his lips.  “We just have to wait for them to turn on the TV,” he whispered.  “When they do, it’ll be so loud they won’t hear us.”  I nodded and strained to hear what was going on in the den.  When we heard the theme song for The Price is Right, Jonathan pulled his backpack onto his shoulders and nodded at me.  “Let’s go,” he hissed.

            My stomach was all tied in knots.  “Do you even know the way to Granny’s house?”

            “Shh…” Jonathan clapped his hand over my mouth and pointed to the bathroom.  “In here,” he whispered.  I followed him and watched him climb onto the toilet and push the heavy window above it open.  “Here,” he said, holding out his hand.  I grabbed it and he pulled me up onto the edge of the toilet seat.  “We’re gonna jump out, okay?”

            I gulped and almost shook my head, but I knew Jonathan wouldn't understand that I was afraid.  David would have, but not Jonathan.  So I nodded once and my long ponytail slapped against my backpack.  We climbed onto the windowsill and Jonathan counted to three.  He clamped his hand hard over my mouth when we jumped and I squeezed my eyes shut tight.

            Dust flew up into our faces when we landed and the cans in my backpack clinked together loudly.  Maggie, our Daddy’s old hound dog, ran towards us and tugged at her chain.  “Can we take Maggie with us?” I asked.

            Jonathan shrugged.  “Sure.”  He unhooked her from her chain, hooked two fingers under her collar, and gave her a tug. 

            “Which way do we go?” I asked.

            Jonathan bit his lip for a second and stood with one hand pressed to his forehead, shielding his eyes from the late afternoon sun.  He pointed to the woods behind the house.  “This way,” he said.  We ran across the yard and into the trees with Maggie right behind us.

            “Jonathan, are we running away?”

            He took his baseball cap out of his backpack and shoved it down onto his head.  “I guess so.”

            “Do you think Mama will miss us?”

            Jonathan rubbed his face, where Mama’s handprint was still a blotchy red outline on his cheek.  “Do you think she will?” he asked.

            I shrugged and looked down at my worn sneakers.  “Come on,” Jonathan said, tugging at my arm.  “If we’re gonna get to Granny’s before dark, we better get going.”

* * * * *

            “We’ve been walking for forever!” I whined.  “How much farther, Jonathan?”

            “I don’t know, Jess.”  Jonathan put his hands on his hips and kicked at a pebble.

            I crossed my arms over my chest and sat down on a big rock.  “I’m hot.”  Tears ran down my dirty cheeks.  “And my feet hurt.  And these cans are heavy.  And it’s getting dark.”

            “How did you get so good at pouting?” Jonathan asked. 

“I wish David was here.” 

I felt new tears burn my eyes and Jonathan shook his head.  “Don’t you start crying,” he said, pointing his finger in my face.  “Now, would you rather be out here with me, or back at the trailer with Mama and Lenny?”

            I sniffed and wiped the back of my hand over my cheeks.  “With you."  We heard a car coming down the road and Jonathan grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me behind a tree.

            I had those knots in my stomach again.  If it was Mama and Lenny, they’d be really mad.  When Lenny got mad, he got mean.  I reached over and touched the rough scars on Jonathan's arm, where Lenny had ground his cigarette into it the last time that he was mad, and felt my lip start to quiver.  "Jonathan?"

            “Hush!”  Jonathan pushed my hand away from his arm and pulled his sleeve down over the scars.  “They’re not gonna find us.”

            “But…”

            He put his hand over my mouth.  “Quiet,” he hissed.

            “Do you see them?” I heard Mama’s voice call.

            “Hold on a minute,” Lenny’s raspy voice answered.  He pushed at the bushed and stomped by just a few feet away from us.

            “Well, do you see them, or not?” Mama called.

            Lenny pushed a limb and it scratched against my neck.  I sucked in a breath and Jonathan tightened his grip around me and pressed his hand down harder on my mouth.  Just then, Maggie growled, jumped out from behind us, and clamped down on Lenny’s hand.  He screamed and kicked Maggie hard.

“What is it?” Mama’s yelled.

“That stupid dog!”  Lenny reached for Maggie, but she yelped and ran off and Jonathan pulled me deeper into the woods.  He tugged my arm as he ran and held me steady as I stumbled over the uneven ground behind him.

            We came to a little clearing and Jonathan stopped and bent over with his hands resting on his knees.  He wiped his face with the bottom of his shirt.  I was crying and had the hiccups.  “Calm down, Jess,” Jonathan said.  He whistled softly and Maggie limped out of the woods and sat down beside me.  “Look,” he said desperately, rubbing my back, “Maggie’s fine.  You’re fine.  They didn’t get us, so stop crying.”

            Tires crunched over the gravel and I felt the knots in my stomach again.  I gripped the straps of my backpack hard, expecting to see Mama and Lenny, but instead, I saw David’s old blue truck.

            “Jon!  Jess!” He called quietly, “I know you’re out here."  He stood in the rays of his truck's headlights and cupped his hands around his mouth.  "Come on, guys!”

            Jonathan stood up and jerked his head toward the truck.  “Look, Jess,” he said, kicking the toe of my shoe.  “David’s gonna take us to Granny’s house.”

            I followed him to the truck and climbed in beside David.  “There’s my beautiful girl,” David said.  He looked just like Daddy, with wavy brown hair and hazel eyes that always looked tired.  “You scared me, running off like that.”

            “It was his idea,” I tattled, pointing to Jonathan.

            David just grinned.  “I know.”  He stretched across the cab of the truck, ran his callused fingers over Jonathan’s shaggy brown hair and patted him on the shoulder.  Jonathan whistled for Maggie and let the tailgate down so she could jump in the back, then climbed into the truck beside me. 

David patted my knee.  “You guys walked a long way,” he said as he pulled the truck out into the road.

            “How long does it take to get to Granny’s house?”

            “A long time.”  David turned onto the highway and put his arm around my shoulders.  The skin on his forearm, where it was supposed to be smooth, was bumpy and rough from Lenny’s cigarettes, too.  “Why don’t you take a nap and I’ll wake you up when we get there, okay?”

            I yawned and leaned against his side.

            “You were really brave tonight,” David whispered, reaching over to run his fingers over Jonathan’s hair.

            “Was I brave, too, David?” I asked sleepily.

            He tugged gently on my tangled ponytail.  “You were brave, too," he said.  "Now go to sleep.”

* * * * *

            I was still asleep when David pulled up at Granny’s house.  He carried me inside and up the stairs to the bedroom.  I woke up when he was pulling the covers up to my chin.  “Are we at Granny’s?” I asked.

David nodded.  “You’ll get to meet her in the morning,” he said.  He smelled like coffee when kissed me on the forehead.

“What time is it?”

“Late.  Now go back to sleep.”

            I rolled onto my back and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark.  The full moon was shining through the window, casting shadows around the room.  The sheets smelled like sunshine and were as soft as my favorite t-shirt.  Outside, I heard crickets and frogs, just like at home.  I slid out from under the covers and tiptoed to the window.  The big red barn looked blue in the moonlight.  Behind it, fields of thick grass went on forever, just like Daddy had said they would.

            The door creaked open and I ran back to the bed and jumped under the covers.  “It’s just me,” Jonathan whispered.  He’d had a bath and his hair was still wet and stuck to his forehead.  “Do you remember this place?”

            I shook my head.

            “I didn’t think you would.  You were just a baby last time we came here.”  He sat down on the edge of the bed.  “Do you remember Granny?”

            “I talk to her on the phone all the time,” I said.

            “You’ll like it here,” Jonathan said.

            He looked sad.  “Do you think Mama’s sad that we left?” I asked.

            “No.”

            “Do you think she’s mad?”

            “Probably.”

            I picked at a loose thread on the pillowcase.  “Do you think Lenny’s hand still hurts?”

            Jonathan covered his mouth to stifle a laugh.  “Yeah, I bet it does,” he said with a big, gap-toothed grin.  He stood up and walked towards the door.  "Good night, Jess."

“What if they look for us?” I asked.

            “They won’t.”

            “How do you know?”

            “Because David said so,” he said with a shrug.  That was all he needed to say.