Chapter 3...Part 8

After 5 days of waiting in the truck stop, the 3 of them sleeping in the SUV, trying to figure out how to keep them all fed, and Don and the guest in cigarettes, the girl was hopeless. She was sore and hurting all over from the constant rains and cold. Every day the guest called and said the recording said the bridge was still closed. This didn’t make much sense that people wouldn’t be able to get to and from their homes but she had never lived on the east coast so who was she to judge?

The girl talked with a friend of hers who said she called and the bridge had never been closed, had been open for all those day. The girl was very scared and nervous by this time and knew it was time to figure something else out. She decided she would figure out a way to leave the guest and get home.

The girl was doing laundry when they announced her name over the loudspeaker. She was confused and went to the front desk. It was DK. She said that the girl’s dad had called and was worried about the SUV being repossessed and she wanted to let the girl know that she might be in trouble.

The girl then went back to folding laundry. She was separating her clothes from the guest’s clothes. She had already emailed a friend of hers trying to find a way to get home and she was just waiting to see what she could find out. She had also emailed those she felt were closest to her because she knew it might be dangerous to leave the guest because he might find a way to hurt her and also because she was going to go off on her own and try to figure out how to find a way home. It could have been very dangerous.

It was because of the later that this next part happened. Cops showed up at the truck stop. They were looking for her. When they found her they told her that they were doing a welfare check reported from DK. They asked if she was okay and if she was with anyone. She told them she was okay and was with someone and she was very scared. She told them she just wanted to go home. She described what the guest was wearing. They went in search of him. They didn’t find him and they told her if she needed help then she needed to call United Way. She asked them if it cost to call them. They told her it might and handed her $1.00 for the call then left.

The girl finished packing and the guest came into the laundry room. He asked her what they said to her and what she said to them. He said that they were packing up and heading to Jacksonville. He didn’t give her a choice. He had borrowed money from someone he had met and they were leaving.

When they were in the vehicle the guest told her how mad he was at her. He said it was her friend that set her up. That DK had called the truck stop to make sure she was there and then called the cops. He was so mad at her. He said that she could have gotten Don in trouble too because she had a warrant out for an unpaid ticket.

The girl was so upset. All her ideas and thoughts were gone again now. How would she ever get help again if they were on the run? She knew they were on the run now. The guest told her that they had no other choice than to get her home so that more of her friends could do the same thing. He told her that she was to contact no one and that if she did and he found out he would leave her.

The girl was so scared of being left and alone that she listened to what he said and didn’t contact anyone. With the money they had borrowed they made it back to the Flying J in Midway/Tallahassee.