The Day I Ran Away

I laid on my cot fully clothed and again thinking of my brother. I was ten when he ran away from this hell hole I still sat in. He told me of stories of a place where we could be free. A place where the ocean crashed and the sun shined. The storm outside my window raged, tearing me from my thoughts. The city traffic could barely be heard over the thunder and pounding rain.

I walked to my window plying with my long brown straight hair. The same window he had climbed out of when he was seventeen telling me he would be back to get me in a few months. After our parents died in a car crash we where willed to our Uncle Zena. We should have died thay night too, it would have safed us a lot of heartache. A scar ran along my arm from the glass, a matching scar ran along my brother's back because he had shielded me from most of the glass that flew as we collided into an eighteen wheeler.

Our Uncle kept us a week before he told us that he didn't want us and he handed us over to a local orphanage in Brooklyn. Oliver and I where separated and we worked like slaves before and after school, and all day Saturday. I stayed here as long as I did because Oliver said he would come back, but he never did... I had stupidly believed him, but I knew he was out there.

I knew if he was somewhere he would be in Sausalito. That was where his last two postcards had come from. It was far away from the loud and busy New York City that I was trapped in, but I hoped we would be together soon. I had two tickets in my backpack and it was packed ready to go. It layed under my bed tucked out of sight. I waited now for Leah to sneak in and meet me. I knew staying here would kill us both and I had finally convinced her to go with me.

The older we got the more work was pushed to us, the harder the belts came and the pressure I felt was starting to make me choke. Leah had felt it too, and on our eighteenth birthday we knew we'd be tossed out qith nothing but the clothes on oir back. We'd have to live off the street as the state stopped the checks Leo lived off of and he would have no use for us anymore.

Leah and I met a year before Oliver had left me standing there by the window making promises he never kept. I often worried why he never came back, if he was hurt or if he had simply moved on and forgotten about me. But every two months until I was sixteen he had sent me a post card from the places he visited and the last two where from Sausalito California.

The door opened and in snuck Leah. "Are we sure he's there." I looked at her worried face and smirked. "Even if he isn't we can't stay here Leah. Leo has gone mad." Leah shook her head as she pulled up her hood and opened the window. "If we get caught run, I'll let them catch me and break out as soon as I can." I handed her a ticket, and she stuffed it in her pocket. Leo had always been harder with me, and I didn't want Leah to face him alone. She was softer then I was, her beautiful black skin always shining. To me she was like a graceful pixie. She wore her hair natural in small tiny ringlets shaped around her face.

I grabbed my backpack and climbed out first and slid down the roof. I grabbed the drain pipe and shimmered down. I waited as Leah climbed slowly. "Come on girl." I ushered as she slowly slid. "I am not a climber so calm down." She hissed as she made it down. The rain soaked through our sweat shirts, our jeans and our shoes as we ran down the side of the building and onto the sidewalk. We started to slip through the bars. She went first and I handed her the first backpack, and then the second before an alarm went off. "Hurry Valor!" I slipped through just as one of the dogs tried to clamp on my ankle, it had grabbed my jeans instead making me fall. I pulled my leg and the jeans tore. I quickly recovered jumping up and grabbing Leah's arm. It snapped and barked as I readjusted my backpack and we took off into the city streets.

We didn't slow down until we reached the train station twenty blocks away and handed them our tickets. "I think I'm gonna pass out." Leah said as we sat waiting for our train. Her breath was ragged as she took deep breaths in and out. "Calm down Leah we are almost gone." The words died on my lips.

I saw Leo out of the corner of my eye. He was scanning the crowd. His large frame towered over most people. "Don't look around. Leo is here. When the train pulls up get on it. I promise I'll get on it somehow." I grabbed my bag as she looked past me. "Be careful." She whispered as I walked past her and around the front of the building where I had last seen him.

I heard the train when Leo bumped into me. "There you are you little shit." He slapped me and as I fell I turned to run towards the train. "Come here." He roared as the rain beat down on us. He pulled my hood, so I unzipped my hoodie and grabbed the bag before it fell off my shoulder. That was my favorite hoodie I thought, as I took off toward the train. Leo yelled as he chased me and I dove off the platform onto the now moving train.

I figured getting crushed to death was better then going back to that orphanage with a punishment surely waiting. My foot slipped on the slick metal, bit my hands held firm. I pulled myself up with the railing of the caboose shaking slightly. I climbed on swinging one foot over at a time. I let oit a deep breat and turned. Watching him in the distance I smiled to myself and waved to piss him off one last time.

After a minute I walked inside the train and felt a wave of relief wash through me. I searched the cars to find Leah. She was on the second one from the front. She sat there shaking and her face dropped in relief as she saw me. "Oh thank the universe!" She said as she engulfed me in a hug. "Can we just stay together from now on." I nodded and we stripped out of our wet clothes hanging them to dry. The train headed for Florida and as it rattled I'd had hoped I planned this out well enough to not be followed.

"Tell me the plan again she said as she tossed on sweats and an old faded pink shirt. "We ride to Florida. Take a bus to Alabama. Take a taxi to the airport. Then last we take a plane ride to California." She shook her head. "That's to much to remember. Did you print the tickets at the house, because Leo could find it and track us down." She shivered and I tossed her a blanket from the rack above the bench seats. "I printed half at the school and the last ones at the public library." I grabbed the other blanket and the material felt thick, but itchy. I tossed it back up on the rack. No blanket was better then that.

She curled in using her backpack as a pillow. "You think we will make it?"

I nodded and I glanced back over seeing Leah already asleep. "Yeah Leah, we will make it." She smiled and I locked the door before falling asleep myself.

I was awoken by the breakfast cart that had one squeaky wheel and grabbed two sandwiches, a handful of wet wipes, an orange juice, and a water bottle. "Leah, time to eat." She stretched and groaned. As she sat up Leah rubbed her face. I stuffed the sandwich in my mouth and tossed her the other. "Thanks." She muttered before peeling the paper back. "Is there a shower on this thing?"

I shook my head and she grunted. "We can maybe shower in Alabama. We can stop a night and grab a cheap motel." I glanced at her and she shook her head. "No we should keep moving so if Leo sends his goones we are long gone. I nodded and tossed her a few wet wipes. "Yay." She said sarcastically as she wiped her face and and then her armpits.

We rode the train for two days exiting in Orlando Florida. "It is beautiful here." Leah exclaimed as she twirled in the sunshine, her dress swirling around her. I smiled liking the sight of her happy. I looked to see a long line of taxi's and waved one down.

"You can stay here if you want." I called as she quickly grabbed her bag and jumped into the cab. "Can you take us to the bus station." The man turned and looked at us. "Which one?" I grabbed our next tickets and showed the man through the glass that separated the front seat and the back. "Yup." He said as he popped the p, and took off down the road. "Friendly." Leah whispered sassily, causing me to laugh.

We drove through Florida traffic and when we pulled up I read the meter. Twenty dollars and forty scents. I gave him twenty five and we exited the yellow cab leaving the grouchy man to his day. We almost missed the bus because of traffic, but we made it there running and weaving through the slow people. We ended up panting as we went through security and walked towards the bus. "Next time could you leave a little room so we aren't running everywhere?" Leah gasped as we found two seats next to each other. "Hopefully there won't be a next time." I smiled and Leah slapped my arm.

We rode the bus to Alabama and didn't get off for fear we'd be left behind and stranded at some rest stop. Ten hours later we where cramping, hot and tired from the bumpy bus. "This humidity is killing my hair." Leah said as we grabbed our bags and headed off the bus. "I can barely stand my legs are like jelly." We laughed and headed to the front of the bus stop. This time there where no cabs so we walked a few blocks to find a pay phone and to look up a cab company in the tattered up phone book. We sat near the phone and wait until they came.