Jacob thought about running away many times, when he was older; but being a responsible young boy and worried for her sister and mother had always stopped him.
When Helen and he became friends, and only a month before they ran away, his sister ran off with her boyfriend; actually it was not running off for her, but it was leaving home for college and living with her ten years older boyfriend. She was already eighteen. When he heard Helen's story and her mentioning that she was thinking about running away, he also made up his mind to do so. He talked to his mother about his intention and begged her to divorce this monster; but his mother told him that she did not care if he left and she did not have the intention of divorcing the evil. He guessed that some people have so low self- esteem like her mother, that they would live in misery since they would not think they can do better. He even told her mother right on her face:
"You just don't like yourself and like to be miserable! You have no respect for yourself!"
Jacob knew besides drinking, they both did drugs. He had seen it even though they tried to hide it. The evil man had hooked his mother to drugs and alcohol, so she would never leave him.
In Springfield, Illinois, bus had an hour of stop for lunch. Jacob had only hundred dollars. This was the money he had saved up from his weekend and some evenings jobs as a grocery sacker. People from their bus all went to this cafeteria that the bus driver had parked in front of it. He had most likely had a deal with the owner of the cafeteria to bring his passengers there for lunch or dinner and perhaps get a free meal himself.
Jacob, being a real nice young teenager, wanted to take Helen there, too; but she said with her dry mouth and empty stomach:
"No, let's find somewhere cheap. We must watch how to spend our money!"
She, herself, had only twenty dollars. They walked in the open air. At the turn of the street, they found a convenient store. They went inside. They had sandwiches, soda pops, and juices. They just bought two salami sandwiches and walked outside. They leaned on the wall of the store, where there was a little sun shinning through the cloudy sky and ate their cold food. They went back inside to use the restroom and drink water from the sink.
Back in the bus, they had no idea where the final destination of the bus was. They had not even looked at the tickets. Fear of getting caught were in their minds the whole time. They decided to go all the way, where the bus would stop completely. They just sat on their seats and slowly fell asleep.
This road was a road that went on for miles, stretching without any end ahead, like their lives, like their dreams.
In her dream, Helen saw birds, lots of them. She was sitting on a bench in a big square. There were benches all around. Many people were there to watch the birds and to feed them. They were throwing bread towards them! The birds would fly down to where the breads were and so expertly grabbed them and flew back up to the sky. But there were many bird gathered around Helen. She was eating her cold, salami sandwich that Jacob had bought her. The birds attacking her to get her food from her hand. She was trying to hide her sandwich inside her fists; but the birds' beaks were hurting her hands and she finally opened her fists and lost her sandwich to the hungry mouths of the birds. She woke up from her horrid dream and found herself next to Jacob in the bus. Was this dream telling her something she already did not know? She was not sure!!
To Be Continued
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