To be read while listening to this. Also, Crime Story is a great show, and I highly recommend it. (Except for that ending. Oof.) And Superdawg, where that last shot was filmed, is a great hot dog place. You should go there. Get your fries with their cheese sauce. I'd also advise not getting ketchup on your hot dog. They will do it, but they will think less of you. Meaning, they won't kick you out like they would at Gene and Jude's, but you'll probably go on a list of some sort.
OK, now to start this thing for real. I've never been the kind of run-away-from-home sort of kid. Even back then I thought that was needlessly dramatic. But there was this one time that I did. I think I was seven years old. I lived in poverty at the time, and I was stuck with an abusive stepfather. So yeah, you can probably see why I did it.
I don't even remember what, specifically, set this off. All I remember is waiting until the sun went down, and then I got my backpack, which I put my most important belongings into. Pencils and paper for writing. My most important books, including the one that made me want to become a writer, which was The Haunted Fort by Franklin W. Dixon. Yes, a Hardy Boys book. And, for some inexplicable reason, my crayons.
Yeah, I was a kid, and yes, I had coloring books. But that's the thing: I didn't pack any coloring books, just the crayons. It must have made sense back then, though.
Once I had my things gathered together, I took off out the back door. I rushed down the rickety steps to the ground floor, snuck by the line of garages to the sidewalk and picked a direction. I didn't know where to go, but anywhere was better than there.
I didn't make it far. My mom caught up to me four blocks away and dragged me home, where I got a sound beating from my stepfather before being grounded for the rest of my natural life and then some. I wasn't even allowed to leave my room for a week, as it was summer and I had no school obligations.
I don't know why I was thinking about that today, but there you go;.
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