Run Away (36/73)

As October rolled around I began to look forward to Halloween. It was my favorite holiday. It was the one day a year I could be somebody else. The one day I could pretend that I was not really who I was. This year my Mother and Jack were planning on having a huge Halloween party at the house with all of their friends. But I knew what the would mean.

It would mean that at some point throughout the night Jack would get to the point that he would have drunk too much and he would start to physically assault my mother. There parties always ended this way. Especially when Jack was drinking. Once Halloween was upon us everyone was busy decorating the house and putting the final touches on their costumes. I was going to be a blue alien this year. I was all dressed up in a metallic blue jump suit with matching bobble antenna’s sprouting out of my head. My Mother did my make up to match complete with black eyeliner that wrapped around in spirals around my face.

She took time away from setting up for the party to take me trick or treating around the neighborhood. It was just the two us. After a couple of hours of gathering candy it was time to go back home. I hated that our alone time was going to be over and that I would now have to go home and stay in my room for the rest of the night while the adults celebrated the holiday.

Once we returned to the house I was surprised that my Grandma Lois was at the house for the party as well. She did not like to be around when they were drinking so I could not understand why she had chosen to come in for the night. I immediately asked my mother if I could sleep in the guest room with Grandma. I was hoping she would say yes because I had an escape plan for when the fighting when start that night. The guest room had the biggest window of all the bedrooms. I had already had my shoes and oat in the room so that I could escape out of the window when the time came. I had no idea where I would go once I escaped but I knew that I had to. I could not take being there in that house anymore. I could not take being around Jack anymore!

A ten-year-old girl with a plan on how to escape her home. A place that I should have felt safe. Once I got a chance to be alone with Grandma Lois for a minute I asked her why she was there. She responded by saying that she needed to protect the house from Jack destroying it like he normally did when he was drunk and enraged. I confided in her that I was going to run away that night if they started fighting. I don’t think she believed me because all she said was don’t be silly you will be safe in the bedroom here with me. But I knew that I would not be safe anywhere in the house no matter who was there. I knew I had to run away that night not matter what.