There are times when I am driving and the freeway opens up and I am sorely tempted to just keep going...The freedom of the open road, the unending possibility.
What usually stops me is the limited amount of money sitting in my checking account and fuel in my gas tank. The open road doesn't seem so open when you are four days from payday and on a quarter of a tank...
We all dream of running away from home every once in awhile. Sometimes it's out of desperation, sometimes out of frustration. Sometimes, it's because of injustice.
Children are especially prone to running away from home out of perceived injustice. I don't remember the exact injustice I perceived when I decided to run away, but whatever happened, it was the last straw. I wrote a note and woke up early, made my bed, packed a suitcase and tried to sneak out to the car.
My mother is an early riser and caught me standing in the hall with my suitcase, frozen like a deer in the headlights.
She looked in my room and saw the note sitting on the bed and told me to wait in the kitchen for her.
With what I now suspect were tears of laughter, she brought the letter in to the kitchen and we sat at the table and read it aloud.
I am sure I gave my reasons, but the part that I really remember was my genius plan to get from my house in the 'burbs to my Grandmother's apartment 20 miles away. I remember I had it all worked out where I was going to move in with my grandmother for a few days and then rotate moving in with my friends for a week at a time. I'd hide in their rooms and they would sneak me food and my parents would call the house I just left and they'd say, "no she's not here" and I'd live out of my green and blue flowered suitcase forever.
In my note I said I wanted my parents not to look for me, but they should still stop at Granny's house on their morning commute and then open the trunk of the car without getting out of the driver's seat. When they heard the trunk shut, then they should drive off immediately and not look in the rearview mirror.
To Mom's credit, she didn't yell at me, but calmly explained how hurtful it was to them that I wanted to run away from home and how scared they would be for me. And, of course, how terrible my plan for getting to Granny's actually was. She crushed my hopes even farther by telling me Granny would be on their side. We cried and hugged it out and never spoke of it again.
I'm not sure my mother even remembers my attempt to run away, since my younger brother's effort was so comical. But that's a story for another day...
