THE RUNAWAY and the FBI
The fact that our mother always seemed to want to move or was forced to move was a burden on us all. Often times we did not know what she would do next.
We were living in two separate apartments. One for the three boys and the other for the girls. My sister and I slept on the floor while our mother had her own bed. This apartment was very small and cramped. My three brothers were living it up in their very own place.
These apartments were the first apartments located downtown in the really bad Tenderloin district. We had been living in rented houses since I was very young; so apartment living was very new to us all.
I had no idea how long we would be living there. It didn't cross my mind that we would move out.
I had started to go to school everyday on the city bus for the first time so I had to rely on myself to catch the bus to and from school.
Little did I know we were being kicked out of the two apartments shortly after moving in; which was a few short months.
The manager already had 2 families ready to move into both apartments and he charged them higher rent.
As I mentioned before, my mother didn't care where we lived.
To my surprise she found the Geneva Towers far on the outskirts of the city. These towers were built especially for low-income families.
They were brand new 20 story twin towers.
These apartments were more modern and very nice and clean. Mommy managed to get us into a 2 bedroom apartment. This time the boys lived with us. I felt ok there just a little bit scared of the neighbors.
Nothing last forever because one day my sister and I were home alone and a few of the neighbor children knocked on the door and Elaine opened it. These children were big for their age and they were able to bust in the door and beat us both up and rob us.
Here we go again. We packed our bags and moved into an upstairs 3 bedroom house which was over a restaurant in a much better neighborhood very close to Golden Gate Park.
By this time I had changed schools and entered the Eighth Grade.
This new neighborhood was a little bit upper class and I was able t meet new people to play with.
My brother Doug was pleased with this new place and he liked to explore the neighborhood. He made friends easily and met 2 teenage girls who were sisters. They were Robin and Chrissy.
Robin and Chrissy lived with their parents in a nice house a few blocks from where we lived. Robin was Doug's age and Chrissy was my age.
Chrissy and I went to the same school and we were in the same classes. I did not hang out with Chrissy much and when I did she often wanted to do something bad like skip class or hang outside. I knew she was trouble and she often made us both late for class.
We managed to live in that house through most of the school year. Being a child was one reason parents used for not having to tell their business or give a child a reason for their actions.
Without our knowledge she had decided to move us all to Seattle, Washington.
Doug wasn't happy. I wasn't happy and the other children were surprised about this decision. Elaine didn't care one way or the other.
For some reason Doug ran off to visit Robin and somehow persuaded Chrissy to run away from her "horrible" life at home with her bad parents.
Was Chrissy really afraid of her parents or just stupid enough to run away from home simply because Doug told her to?
Since we were still on Welfare Mommy probably didn't pay the rent again so that she could pay for the train ride for all of us to move to Seattle.
This was really happening. We got our stuff packed and left a lot of stuff behind. Mommy never cared about furniture or appliances or things we really needed. We usually packed our clothes and left everything else behind.
At the last minute, Chrissy showed up with her suitcase in hand. Apparently Mommy had already purchased a ticket for her and claimed her as her daughter.
Little did I know that it was illegal to take a minor child who was not your own legal child across state lines. Well, we were going to cross two state lines. The first being the California-Oregon border; the second , the Oregon-Washington border.
I was shocked to know that Chrissy really ran away from home and she did not seem to realize the seriousness of her situation or her circumstances. She may have believed she was taking a trip with us and playing along.
This was not a game. This was real. She was actually running away from home and Mommy was responsible for her. The other children wondered why she was going with us. Doug laughed and thought it was funny. He even pretended to be Chrissy's boyfriend.
The train would take 24 hours which would be an extremely long and tiring trip.
I, especially did not want to leave San Francisco. What choice did I have? I could be angry and pissed at Mommy, and I probably was.
While we were on the train, Chrissy and Doug sat next to each other enjoying the ride and did not feel guilty about what Chrissy was doing. I didn't talk to her much. I didn't have much to say. I didn't even ask her about her parents or her life at home. This was the way I always was. I never asked anything about people's lives. It wasn't because I didn't care or was consumed with my own life. I just never asked questions. It was my nature. I was just like that.
(I am still like that today.)
We arrived in Seattle. We were tired, hungry and there was no place to go.
Mommy did the first thing she could think of. Something she had done before. We had walked to the first motel we could find. There were seven of us now. Mommy managed to get us 2 rooms. Both with a kitchenette. A kitchenette was a small kitchen with a mini refrigerator, a stove and a small table that folded down from the wall.
The one thing we always do when we get to a new place is explore the town. Seattle is a big city that is famous for the Space Needle.
A tall towering skyscraper with a top like a needle. It is still the main attraction of Seattle today.
There is also a Monorail , tram/train type of ride that travels to the Space Needle. So we took a ride on the Monorail and that was fun.
We were always broke so we couldn't do much and we didn't go to school either.
We stayed at the motel and watched TV and nothing much more.
I was wondering how long we would last in Seattle and secretly wishing to go back to San Francisco. ( I had a good reason for this to be revealed at a later time.)
We had only been in Seattle about 2 weeks. I wondered if anyone was looking for Chrissy.
We didn't have a telephone as usual, so I didn't know if she had contacted her parents to let them know that she was ok or if she even missed them and wanted to go home.
All of a sudden , it happened. Doug came running into the motel room yelling about the FBI.
He was very excited, out of breath and started telling everybody that the FBI is after Mommy and that they have a warrant for her arrest for kidnapping Chrissy and taking her against her will across state lines.
There was panic in his voice as he spoke. We were scared and worried that Mommy was going to jail.
She didn't actually kidnap Chrissy and she had to prove this to the FBI.
Chrissy's parents had been looking for her the entire time that she went missing from her home.
We never saw or met her parents or the FBI. I believe they had taken Mommy to the police station but we had no details until Doug came running into the room.
The story Doug told us was that Robin probably knew something and told her parents about Doug and the possibility that Chrissy was with him.
I only knew what Doug told us. Mommy was in a lot of trouble and Chrissy's parents could press charges and send her to jail. That would be very bad for everybody and we did not need that to happen.
As much as we didn't want to be with Mommy, or lives would be disastrous without her.
So according to Doug, Chrissy's parents made a deal with her and the FBI , to let her go and not press charges against her for kidnapping.
As long as Chrissy verified that she ran away from home on her own, the FBI had to agree and let Mommy go free as long as she returned to California with her children. This was her big mistake and she had to face the fact that you can't run away from your problems and take someone else's child with you.
Again we were to turn around and make our way back to California.
(I made a pit stop alone and will tell you why in another story.)
Chrissy was back with her parents and we never saw her again.
Doug did not contact any of them again so I suppose he was sad in his own way and I never knew if he ever got over it.
THE END
Written by: Heather Pasaphunthu
