Runaway Child (2)

 

Early in the the next morning as I awakened on the stairwell by the roof, it took me a minute to collect myself. Then, it ALL came flooding back to my mind, and my body which hurt from the beating my Mom gave me the night before, my eyes filled with tears! And I grew angrier and angrier with each year drop that fell from my eyes! Why? Why GOD? If YOU’RE SO Good, why did you put me with A Mother, brother, and Sister who hated me!! Who mocked me and, laughed at me every chance they got an they had plenty! My Mom always had ammunition at the ready for me! Why? What did I ever do to deserve this? I wasn’t a bad child! No more than any other child I thought! But for me, I got nothing but, you look just like Your dam father! You stand just like Your father! Get out of My sight before I kill you! All the horrible stuff My Mother said to me and about my father who I never met, never knew, except by other family members who knew my father in Georgia! I began to hate the man that my Mother hated me for! And then I’d cry even harder because he wasn’t there to save me from my Mother! Oh, but that’s Right, he never wanted me either!! Why? Why GOD was I not wanted? Not loved, not necessary! Not nurtured, loved and appreciated! Oh, My mother would brag about how well I did in school. What good grades I had! How I only made A’s B’s, C’s And E’s for excellent! But when there was no one around for her to shine for me, I was stupid, dumb, and just plain ordinary NOTHING special!

I cried myself back to sleep up in that corner by the roof! When I awakened again, I was hungry! That’s what woke me up! I smelled good cooking! French fries and hot dogs ummmm! Boy was I hungry! There was a little restaurant called Fingerbowls downstairs from the building where I slept! It sat Katy Cornered of the apartment building I stood up and stretched tried to smooth my pants and shirt down so it didn’t look as if I slept in them! Ran my fingers through my TWA aka Teeny Weenie Agro and started making my way downstairs. I had no idea how I was going to get some of that delicious food from the restaurant, but even if I had to beg I was going to get me an Italian Hotdog! And maybe even a soda! I went out the front door of he building and looked around to see if there was anyone I knew, or who my brother or sister knew especially my brother who was a freshman in high school and a member the track team. So he knew a lot of people. The High School was right up the hill from where I was at. So, I had to keep my wits about me! As I walked up the three steps into Finger Bowls I heard a couple of older guys talking to the,owner who was preparing their food. When I walked in they all turned and said hey pretty lady. I almost turned around to see who they were talking to, but I realized it was me!

Anywayz,  it was then that I discovered my charm ability! I smiled and said, thank you. This only made them smile more and then I suddenly became afraid! I thought about My mother’s boyfriend the Police Officer who molested me! I must’ve shown on My face because my eyes started to fill up, and all three men were asking me what was wrong? And I turned to run out of there. But the owner came from behind the counter and knelt down in,front of me and said don’t you worry ain’t nobody gon hurt you in here  little lady ok? He had a kind face, and his eyes looked sincere. I shook my head ok, and,he asked me if I wanted a soda, I said Yes. One of the other guys said I’ll pay for her soda. The other guy said give her whatever she wants to eat and I’ll pay for it! The owner of the restaurant said oh now y’all wanna pay for her food her soda when it was y’all ugly asses that scared her! They all laughed and so did I.  And that’s how I came to have my first meal as a runaway child. Even then, GOD had HIS Hand on Me! Only I didn’t know it yet. I was STILL VERY ANGRY with GOD.

Runaway Child

As I started thinking about running away at first it was a scary thought. I mean how was I going to live? I didn’t know the first thing about how I was going to take care of myself! I was 13 years old and as far as My Mom and My siblings went, I was also stupid! And so I decided against running away for awhile. That is until that night that I just had to break free! It was a Sunday night, my Mom, my brother and Sister were in the living room watching tv. Mom was agitated with me because she said I was moving too slow as far as cleaning up the kitchen that night after dinner. It wasn’t my turn to clean up the kitchen, it was my Little sisters turn. But my Mom said that my little sister always left the dishes greasy and she wanted them clean! And since I opened my mouth and said that it was my sister’s turn to clean the kitchen, Mom said since you got so much mouth you go in the kitchen and clean it up! Like I don’t know who’s turn it is! What you trying to call me stupid? I said no Mom. But she was already stirred up and I just went into the kitchen and started washing the dishes! Mom was talking about me to my older brother and my Little Sister like I wasn’t even a part of the Family! Tears we’re pouring down my face while I washed the dishes and put them in the dish rack. They were laughing at me, and talking about me!! It broke my heart into pieces! We had pig feet for dinner which I hated! I use to keep a little brown paper bag in My pocket to put the pig feet in and take them out side to our dog Queenie!! She was a beautiful German Shepherd! But even she wouldn’t eat the pig feet! So, I had to walk around to the side of the house to throw it into the garbage can! Oh, by the way, my Sister and I had to take out the garbage as well! My Brother didn’t have chores only us.

But I digress, on this particular night I had to take out the garbage by myself! And there were huge rats around by the garbage can. We, my Sister and I use  get as close to the garbage cans and throw the garbage into the can! And then run as fast as We could because the rat’s use to start fighting over the garbage and it was  scary sound! I had to do all this by myself that night because I dared to tell Mom that it was NOT my turn to do the kitchen clean up! Mom had this big ole pot that she used to cook collard greens, or pig feet or hammocks. ( I hated those too) the bathroom was down a long narrow hall and you had two steps down to enter the bathroom on the left! As I was walking down the hall I slipped and fell and there was pig feet juice every where! That was the last straw! Mom came out of the living room and grabbed the pot off the floorboard started bearing me about the head, back any where she could hit me. The pot slipped from her hand so she snatched the shade off the window in the hall and whipped out the thin wooden piece from the bottom of the shade, when that broke she took the far part of the shade roll itself to beat me with. It was  that point, that I saw a way out! And I took it! I ran down the stairs and out the door! And I kept on running. Never looking back! I ran, and ran for about 4 or 5 blocks until I was winded and gasping for breath! It was night time so, there were not a lot of people outside! I remember thinking ok, now what are you going to do? I went to a building where one of my friends from school lived and went all the way up the the attic door! I sat down and balled myself up. And I asked GOD to please watch over me and not make me go back to that house where there was no love for me there! All I remember of that night is I fell asleep because the next thing I knew was it was morning and I heard my friend’s Mom telling her and her brother to hurry up or they’d be late for school! I still stayed where I was until every one in the building that was going to school, work, or wherever was gone! And that was my very first day of being a runaway child! Not knowing what lay ahead of me, but I thought anything was far better than to be back at my Mom’s house, where there was no love, and no laughter for me!! I was free!!