RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME WITH PERMISSION

 Running Away From Home With Permission

The sprinklers were on in the park across the street from our house in Winter Haven.  It was Summer and hot.

It was time to run and play and splash in the sprinklers.

Mommy was in the house as usual.  She stayed indoors most of the time and watched Timmy and TV at the same time.  Daniel, Elaine and Janet were home doing other things.

David and I hung out together most of the time since we got along the best.

On this day we both decided to go play in the sprinklers and later ask Elaine and Daniel to play with us.

We were barefoot already so we didn't worry about shoes.  I threw on my little red swimsuit. It was the only one I had and a hand-me -down from Elaine.  It was loose on me in some places but it had to do.

David threw on some shorts and we headed outside to run around in the hot sun and get wet.

We did not know what was going on at home and we did not care.  I was nine and David was 11.  He was old enough to know when we should head back in the house.  I suppose it was getting dark and we started to get cold.

Fun in my family didn't last long.  Disappointments came often and as children our age we should not have so many disappointments.

Little did we know that as soon as we entered the house, Mommy was already angry about something.  It seemed like anything set her off.  So whatever she was angry about she blamed on one of us or all of us. We could be totally innocent of everything and still get blamed for whatever it was.

She was yelling and screaming and we were nervous and scared and upset the minute we walked in the door.

Mommy obviously, had to say something to both of us to make us want to run away from home.  Whatever happened while we were outside playing must have been so bad that she would not stop screaming at us.  I think she just did not like us having fun and she chose to be in the house because she would never let Timmy grow up and she treated him like an infant even when he was at least four years and could walk and talk and do a lot of things.

She still had him in diapers and wouldn't toilet train him.   She would not let any of us get close to him or help him do anything or play with him at all.

She threatened us with beatings if we even tried to go near him.

This thing about her I believe triggered her anger towards us in a way that we thought she was crazy or just plain jealous.

Anyway, here we were standing in front of her listening to her yelling at us so we decided to test her and told her we are going to run away from home to try to find another family who would take us in to their home and adopt us as their children. 

We dared her and asked, "Can we run away from home and you promise not to come looking for us or call the police?"  She said , "Okay, go ahead.  Run away and don't come back.  I won't look for you or call the police.  Just go and don't ever come back."

We held her to her promise and were really going to leave.

To my surprise, Daniel was running away with us since it was him she was yelling at when we came into the house.

I was still only wearing the red swimsuit so David let me put on a pair of his sweat pants.  He put on a pair of pants and we hurriedly ran out the door before she could come after us.

I didn't want to go but I had my mind set on what she said and our lives with her were not good.  What else could we do right then and there?  I had to be strong and stay with David.  Daniel was scared but he wanted to try to go with us and not cry.

It was do or die.  We walked out the front door and didn't say goodbye.  Daniel wanted to go to Buckeye Hills.  A neighborhood about 2 miles away that was a rich area so he may have thought if he got to a house there the people would be nice and kind and help him.

I told him not to split us up and he started to walk in that direction alone.

David and I hoped that Mommy would keep her word and not follow us.  We walked to the corner of the block and turned left with no direction in mind.  Just walk and keep walking.

I asked David, "Where are we going?" He wanted to try to get to Rotary Park and keep walking towards Lake Martha to find a house to ask the people there to help us and let us stay the night.

We didn't have friends to stay with or help us.  Running away was simply running away.  We didn't plan this or really want this to happen.  She pushed us too far and we couldn't take it anymore.

As we started around the corner we ended up in Sixth Street which was actually the street that was in the back of our house.  When we took a short cut through our back yard and went through the bushes we ended up on Sixth Street.

We were walking down Sixth Street back towards the back of our house and suddenly we heard someone calling our names.  I told David that's Mommy calling us.  She's was calling in her loud voice, "Heather! David!, I know you're here.  I saw you come this way."

So much for her promise.  "David, she's coming, she's coming!  Let's hide in the bushes." I cried.  

David always had something up his sleeve.  He said, "Let's go to Rotary Park.  She won't find us there."

I was scared , she was coming closer and she had Timmy in the stroller.  She would never let him walk and it was super embarrassing to us when she treated him like this. 

we had to keep moving so we decided to run really fast out of the bushes and down around the corner back to Fairfax Street.

When we finally got back to Fairfax Street we took off to Rotary Park.  I didn't know how far it was but at least we were far from where Mommy was looing for us.

We could still hear her calling our names and she was approached by someone walking down the street and they probably asked her what was wrong.  We knew that she couldn't call the police because she was outside walking and we did not have a telephone in our house.  She would have had to go back home and go next door to the neighbor's house to call them.

We got to the park and I kept telling David not to stop there.  He insisted he wanted to stop and watch some people playing Frisbee.

We were just two little kids.  We were not there to play Frisbee and we could not play with adults.

He wanted to prove me wrong so he went over to the guys playing and got them to let him play.  I was tired and upset and we needed to go. I begged and pleaded with him to get going that minute.

Too late!  I saw a police car coming our way and it was driving directly on the grass.  They were coming for us.  We were doomed.

She promised and didn't keep it. She called the police.

We tried to run. We couldn't run fast enough.

They caught us and put us in the car and started to take us home.  

We were both crying and scared.  The police asked us we were and what we were doing out in the park.

We wanted them to believe us when we told them the truth.  "She told us we could run away. She gave us permission.  She will beat us really badly when we get home." We begged them not to take us home. "She is going to kill us and beat us black and blue.", we cried out to them.

They did not know her and did not know what she would do and did not believe a word we said. 

She was waiting for us at the door and politely thanked the policemen for bring her loving children home to her.  They did the same and told us to be good and not ever do it again.

We later learned that Daniel went home crying as soon as he got to the corner by the water department.  She beat him and sent him to bed.

When we asked her why she followed us and how the police knew where to find us , she lied and said they just happened to be driving by when they heard her calling our names.

Actually she went home and had Janet call the police from the neighbor's house.

She did beat us black and blue and we hated her and always wanted to run away again and again, but always afraid to do it.

Never ask permission to run away from home.   It is not worth it.

The End 

Written by:  Heather Pasaphunthu