Except for Pennsylvania

This is a short story that I wrote for a class. The assignment was to write a 2-5 page short story about a vagabond meandering the country. I wrote over that and I had a lot of fun doing so.

Before I go I would like this to document my story: I was 16 when I left the farm. No, I wasn’t a runaway who wanted to rebel against my parents. I left because I had to. I grew up in a household of four. It was me, Ma, Pa, and my younger sister, Mary.  Before I left, Ma had gotten really sick. The doctor came to us when she went for her yearly checkup and told us that it was something called Influenza. It was what killed off all those people a couple years back. In response to the disease, Ma was taken to the hospital ward at Fort Riley and treated there for some time. We weren’t allowed to visit her at all and Pa became very lonely. We weren’t rich enough to afford farmhands to help out around the farm, so it was up to Pa and me to take care of the animals. After Ma went into the hospital, Pa rarely ever wanted me to help out around the farm. Mary and I didn’t see him at all in the day and when he did come inside, we only saw him for a little bit before he took a bottle of scotch and stayed cooped up in his room for the rest of the night. Mary was only 6 during this time but she was still expected to cook and clean for us. When Ma was taken, she cried for a week straight before Pa took her out back… After that, she didn’t cry anymore. Since Pa didn’t want me in the fields, I would stay on the porch and study. I studied all kinds of things but I first had to teach myself how to read and write. Ma said I was very gifted and that I would go far one day. I think she was just saying that because she knows that’s my dream. I always wanted to travel across the whole country. My goal is to travel to the capitol of every state in our country. Ma and Pa brought me to Topeka when I was little so that is one to count off the list. That’s what I’ve been studying. I now know all 48 states and their capitals. Well, all except Pennsylvania. I always get confused on Pennsylvania. Well, things started to get worse fast. While Ma was still in the hospital, Mary got the same disease that Ma had. That influenza was tearing her up from the inside out. They took her away from us as well and put her in the same hospital as Ma. I guess that was nice. At least she got to see Ma for a short time. Ma passed away only a little while after Mary arrived at the hospital. And then Mary did the same a little bit after that… It was only me and Pa left back at the farmstead. Their passing was hard on both of us but it hit Pa harder than ever. He never came out of his room for anything. He refused to eat or drink. He even stopped working the farm. Well, Pa came out of his room only once and it was to tell me that we needed more feed for the hens. I went out to get some and when I came back, Pa had done the unthinkable.. I’m  alone now.

My leg hurts so bad, I think it may have grown infected… the pain…. unbearable..

Ma wrote me a letter about 2 weeks before she passed. I didn’t receive it until the doctors came to our door to drop off all of her belongings. There was one sentence in the letter that was nagging at me. “Follow your dreams James.” My Ma wanted me to follow my dreams, she wanted me to travel like I always wanted to. So that’s what I did. I sold the farm for 20000 dollars and took off. I started off in my hometown of Wamego and decided that I wanted to make it the Pacific Ocean. Ma always said she was going to take us there if we ever got the money. Pa was against it and I think that’s why we never went but it was always nice to hope a little. In town I found a man named Rob who told me that he was headed to Lincoln to drop off a shipment. He heard about my family and once I told him my goal, he was more very supportive and offered me a ride. Of course I accepted and we went on the road. With a belly full of food from the local diner and 20000 dollars in my pocket, I was off to a good start. The trip to Lincoln was a long 8 hours and I got to know Rob very well. He also lost his Pa when he was very young and had to take up the responsibilities on the farm to support his brothers and sisters. Rob is a good man and I hope he is doing well now.

When we got to Lincoln, I went with Rob to drop off his shipment. He met with a big, burly man with a round belly. I don’t remember his name but I remember that he smelled that maple syrup and tobacco. Rob got back in the automobile to go home but I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. My journey was far from over and I asked him if he would take me to the edge of town. It was now midday and I knew that I had enough time to make it to the next town by nightfall. At first he protested, trying to convince me to come with him but I stood my ground and he soon gave in. Before we left, I made sure to pick up a postcard. I decided that I was going to collect those. As he dropped me off at the edge of town, I handed him 100 dollars and told him to buy something nice for his daughters. He was shocked but graciously accepted the money. I’m glad he did because I wasn’t going to let him leave without it.

Someone is going to find me.. not that far… they will find me, right?

Well, 2 down and 46 to go. By the time I get into the next town, I’m exhausted and hungry. Very hungry. I walk into this little inn and ask if they have a room available. They do and I hand the receptionist eight dollars for the room. Before I find my room I walk across the street to the diner and I ate the best burger that I had ever had in my life. I wish I had time to go back there one more time. My bedroom was nice. Felt weird not to be sleeping back at the farm. Felt good. Felt free. I was free.

Nothing really happened for the next eight weeks. I met a few interesting people traveling from town to town. Met a family who came all the way from Ireland in Cozad! I didn’t understand too much of what they said but I did learn that they were making there way to Sedgwick, Colorado and that’s how I ended up there. Sedgwick was a nice town but I didn’t stay there long. I heard of a town called Sterling a few miles west which was supposed to be one of those big cities. I thought it was going to be like New York City so I made my way there as fast I could. It wasn’t as close as everyone made it out to be so it took me about two weeks to get there.

When I got into town I was shocked, I’ve never seen so many people walking around all at once. I got caught in the atmosphere and soon it was dark and I was lost. I was on the edge of the city and really needed to find somewhere to lay my head for the night. They came out of nowhere. I didn’t see it coming. The memory is still a blur but before I knew it, I was laying in the dirt with a black eye, two broken ribs, and a pocket full of nothing. I was lost, I was broke, I was broken. I am alone. Alone.

I’m so hungry… no food.. the pain.. how much more can I take?

The next thing I remember, I woke up in this small room with one window overlooking a field. I had no idea where I was or how long I had been asleep. I tried to sit up and I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I was so confused and then all of a sudden it all came back to me in a flood of memories. Three men. One had a pipe. They beat me. Took my money. Left me on the street. I started to cry. I am so alone. No family. No money. No hope.

An older lady walks into the room suddenly and jumps when she sees that I am awake. She runs to get her husband who informs me that they found me lying on the side of the road when they were driving home from Sterling about a week ago. I asked him where “home” was and he told me Denver. And as soon as he said that, I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe there was hope after all. Although I was broke and injured, God must be trying to tell me something.

I stayed with that family for some time. The man’s name was James like me and his wife’s name was Catherine except she liked to be called Cathy. They had a son at one time around my age. He passed away about two years back from the same disease that Ma and Mary had.  I stayed with them for about three months. I even got to celebrate my birthday with them. Cathy made me a big cake with chocolate frosting. My favorite! I worked with James during those few months and made a little bit of money for myself. I bought a new pair of boots and even had some pocket money left over. I loved staying with them because they reminded me of Ma and Pa but as time went on I got more and more eager to leave in the middle of the night and continue on my journey. I hadn’t given up yet. Before I left though, they gave me a gift. It was their son’s old motorcycle. It was old and beat up but it ran like a dream. I thanked them and tried to pay for it but they wouldn’t take any money. They wished me good luck and I was on my way west toward the ocean.

Ol’ Bessy was a dream machine. I was traveling faster than I ever have before and went through multiple towns a day eventually making it to New Castle, Colorado within a week. I only stayed there for a night. I filled up on some gasoline for my motorcycle and had a nice meal. I took off early the next morning and made it my goal to reach number 4 on my list. I made it to Vernal, Utah before I had to stop. It was a torrential downpour and I wasn’t going to make it anywhere that night in that weather. I thought that the weather would pass overnight but I ended up staying in Vernal for about three days before the skies cleared up and I was able to get back on the road again. I was making good time and made it to Salt Lake City in a few hours.

The cold… I’m so cold…

I was now over 700 miles from home and I decided that I wanted to celebrate a little bit. I walked straight up to the bar, sat down and asked the waiter for a double shot of whiskey “on the rocks” like Pa used to. I think it was funny that I ordered that because before that, I never had a swig of alcohol in my life. I put the glass to my mouth and swallowed it all in one go. It burned like hell. Felt like molten glass going to down my throat. I started coughing and everyone was staring at me. I put two dollars on the counter and walked out of there as fast as I could. I have never been more embarrassed in my life. Salt Lake City was fun. I found a nice inn to stay at and I ate at a different diner every night. After a week in the city I noticed I was running low on money and needed to find some work. The next morning, I got on Ol’ Bessie and rode out of there onto a small town called Portage.

Finding a job wasn’t too hard. I asked at the local market in the middle of town and the cashier told me to drive a little outside of town to the north and look for a big sign that says “Murphy Dairy.” The cashier wasn’t exaggerating the size of the sign because I noticed it over a mile away from the farm’s entrance. I rode up the narrow dirt road, with a pasture on either side both full of dairy cows, to a large brick house. I knock on the front door and I’m greeted with the wrong end of double-barreled shotgun. The person in front of me was a huge, bald man and he did not seem happy to see me at all. He asked me, in a very deep voice, who I was and what I was doing on his property so I gave him the run-down of my story. As I went on, the gun slowly started to lower and when I finished telling my story, I asked him if he needed any help around the farm. After what seemed like some intense thought, he responded with “I guess I could find something for you to do.”

He walked me around to the back of the farm and showed me where I was going to be sleeping. The bunkhouse had three beds and a chest at the foot of each bed. There were two men in there both on their own bed. The first man was a loud and obnoxious man named Crow. I’m sure that’s not what his actual name was but he never shared it to me. His bed was on the left as soon as you walked into the bunkhouse. The other man was named Thomas and although he didn’t talk very much I picked up that he was very intelligent. I was obviously the youngest one here by far but the other farmhands didn’t seem to care. Working for Mr. Murphy was hard but it paid well enough and I got meals and a place to stay.

Why did I listen… I should’ve ended it all when I had the chance…

About a month into working on the farm, a rumor started to spread around the farm that someone special was going to be coming soon. I didn’t think anything of it until later that week a glossy, black automobile came up the narrow dirt road throwing up a cloud of dirt behind it. Mr. Murphy was standing outside the house when the automobile pulled up so I knew it had to be someone of great importance. The driver got out and opened the back door of the car and who stepped out had to be an angel straight from Heaven. She was absolutely perfect, she was. She could be no more than 18 years old.  Dressed in all black. She wore the nicest clothes and had to be worth at least a million dollars. Her beautiful blonde hair was cut short and she resembled one of those “flappers” that I have been seeing in the papers. Once she was fully out of the car, that’s when our eyes met for the very first time. They were a gorgeous, bright green but somewhere, deep inside, I could see a pain. A pain that we both shared. She walks straight up to Mr. Murphy and gives a great, big hug. They both walk inside as the automobile pulls away. We quickly head back to work. Later into the night, Mr. Murphy walked into the bunkhouse and warns us that if anyone lays a hand on his daughter, not only will they lose their job but they will lose their head as well.

I loved you then and I will always love you…

The weeks go on as usual but unbeknownst to her father, Anna would talk to me every now and again. I learned a lot about her in the next few months. Her mother had passed away from influenza the week before she arrived. Even though they lived in New York City and they had great doctors to take care of her, they couldn’t keep her stable enough to last very long… She did tell me though that doctors are working on a vaccine to stop people from getting it. On a happier note she was very intelligent. She loved nature and told me that although she loved living in the big city with her Ma, she always wanted to live out in the woods one day.  On her own. She said that a glade of a forest was a portal to finding who you really were in life. Although I didn’t understand a lot of what she spoke about I loved to listen to the enthusiasm in her voice. She even started to teach me a few things by candlelight because she said that education was one of the most important things in life. Although I didn’t agree necessarily, I went along with it. She even started to teach me a few things by candlelight at night. Mainly we read the works of John Muir because is all she brought with her from New York. Life was going well for me. For once in a long time, I was happy.

A few months went by and I had started to forget about my journey. I had grown accustomed to life on the farm and actually enjoyed it at times. I especially enjoyed my time with Anna but the money was nice too. One night while we were studying, she was rambling on about the Great War and politics and such and I got this feeling deep down and just kissed her. Right on the lips! I kissed her and then I kissed her again and again. I apologized profusely right after that but she rushed away, back into the house before anything else could be said.

This is it, isn’t it…?

For the next few weeks, nothing was said between Anna and I. Then one night, as I was fast asleep I got a hard shove that woke me instantly and before I could say anything, I felt her lips against mine. That shut me up! She took me by the hand out of the bunkhouse, into the house, up the stairs, and into her room. Although I had to sneak out in the morning, I spent many late nights in her bedroom. Everything was going nicely again until Anna started to get sick. It started with her feeling really tired all of the time and then she started to vomit. Mr. Murphy didn’t think anything of it but I knew something was wrong. She took me to the side one day while I was working with the cows and expressed to me that she thinks that she may be pregnant. I instantly become joyous and hug and kiss her, but she doesn’t react in the same way. She tells me that she can’t tell her father and if she did, he would kill me. So we decided to hold off on announcing her pregnancy until it starts to show.

We start to plan out names. We both agree on Elizabeth for a girl and William if it’s a boy. Six weeks in, Anna started to show unusual symptoms and I started to get a little concerned. She started to get extremely sick and had a really high fever. It wasn’t until the dark spots started to show up on her cheeks that I knew what was happening. She caught it. I don’t know how she caught it, but she did. I go straight to Mr. Murphy and although he was caught off guard, he believed me and rushed her to the hospital in Salt Lake City. He wouldn’t let me come in the automobile with him so I hopped on Ol’ Bessie and followed behind them the whole way there. The soldiers outside the hospital wouldn’t let anyone into the hospital other than her. No one came out to tell us anything so we waited. He never said anything to me. The only thing that came from him were tears that hit the dirt and created small mud puddles. She was all he had left. She was all I had left…

We both stayed in Salt Lake City for two weeks. A doctor came out each day to read off the names of the deceased to the many grieving family members waiting outside the doors much like we were. Each day would lead to another day which lead to another day. We waited to hear the names on the list: Dorothy Smith, Charles Johnson, Ruth Anderson, Anna Murphy…..  

All of a sudden my body went numb, I felt like I was drifting away into a void of nothingness. I no longer heard anything but the words of the doctor, echoing repeatedly in my head. Darkness clouded my mind and a pain, a pain so imaginable filled my heart. I couldn’t breathe. I was panicking. I needed to go. I needed to leave and get as far away from there as possible. I walked away from the hospital but before I got too far, I turned around and met the gaze of Mr. Murphey. There was no anger like there had always been before, only pain. The same pain that I saw the first time I ever made eye contact with Anna. The same pain that I saw in Cathy and James. The same pain that I had in my eyes. The same pain.

I will be home soon… I’ll see you guys soon.

I hopped on Ol’ Bessie a rode out of Salt Lake City, north the way that I came. I passed Portage, passed the farm, and all of the memories that resided there. I rode into Idaho and eventually made it into the town of McCammon. With 100 dollars in my pocket, I walked up to the first inn that I saw and rented a room. I closed the door behind me, locked it, plopped onto the bed and started to cry. Everything hit me all at once. I felt anger and hate and resentment to everything in my life. Everyone that I have ever gotten close too has died. Everyone I have ever loved is gone. I am completely alone. Over 800 miles away from home with no purpose, no meaning, no future. Mr. Murphy lost his child today… and so did I.

I couldn’t do it anymore. I have been pushed over the edge. This is it. I composed myself enough to hop on Ol’ Bessie and ride west toward Oregon. Consumed by my own thoughts. Not thinking of anything but all that I have lost. I blamed Ma. I blamed Mr. Murphey. I blamed God. I rode so fast that I didn’t see the hare until it was too late. I swerved the motorcycle and threw myself off. I tumbled in the dirt becoming bruised and scratched. Ol’ Bessie tore off to side of the road, flipping over itself multiple times. Surprisingly, I got up without any serious injury and walked over to Ol’ Bessie only to see the worst. It’s body was all mangled and gasoline was leaking from the tank. I was alone again. In the dark with nothing in sight but a bridge that crossed over the Snake River. I walked over to it slowly and waited there for what seemed like many hours. A German man drove by and he gave me a ride to the nearest town. I don’t remember his name at the moment but he was a fairly nice man. I rented another room to rest and recuperate my strength. I stayed for one day in that town and set off again. With no form of transportation, it was back to hitchhiking for me. Driven by grief and fueled by rage, I made it my goal to reach the Pacific Ocean like I had originally planned. I traveled a total of almost 200 miles before I reached Boise. Although I had finally marked another capitol off my list, the joy that I once felt was no longer there. I had reached rock bottom and no longer cared about anything other than making it to where I was going.

My travels were pretty uneventful for the next two months or so. I did small jobs around the towns that I would make my way into. Washing an automobile here, painting a house there. I made enough money and found myself in Oregon. Only a few hundred miles away from the ocean I started to get anxious. I was no longer angry. I was determined to finish my journey for Ma and for Anna.

I made it to Bend, Oregon within a few weeks. I started to ask around about what the fastest way to get to the ocean was. I was told that the shortest journey would be to go straight through the Willamette Forest. Not only was I take aback by their but I started to question if I had the ability to survive out in the forest. Yes, I grew up on a farm and have been on my own for the past few years but nature is unforgiving. One mistake can be fatal. I had to consider my options and did so over a week’s time. I stayed a small inn on the edge of town overlooking the forest. Each night I would look out into the darkness and each night I would wonder what was out there. I decided that I was going to continue onward into the forest. I had nothing left to lose.

The next morning I went to the general store in the middle of town and bought a new pair of boots, a heavy coat, a pair of thick gloves, a bag, and rations for my journey. I also bought a 6 inch knife and a book of matches. Standing at the edge of the forest, I was only thinking about two things. The first was Anna. She will be the only girl that I will ever love. She stands as my motivation and my inspiration to find more in life than what I already know. The second is a quote that she would always say to me while we were reading together, “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” John Muir said that. I closed my eyes and took one big step into the forest. Without ever looking back at the town behind me, I kept walking, knowing that my safety and my life were not guaranteed.

When I first got here, it was smooth sailing. I still had two meals a day, it was still warm and I still had enough to drink. Things didn’t start getting rough until I started running out of food. With less than a week’s worth left and I wasn’t even halfway through yet, I knew that I was in trouble. I made it about two more days before I started to seriously panic. There were barely any water sources and if they I did happen to come across one, it was muddy and undrinkable. Dehydrated and on the verge of starvation, I knew that I couldn’t last much longer. I had been going up hill steadily for quite some time now so I wasn’t at all surprised to find myself having to travel down a steep hill to get back to sea level. Using the trees to steady myself I worked my way down the hill very slowly. It had just recently rained so keeping a footing was extremely difficult. One wrong step led me to where I am now. I slipped and tumbled down the hill slamming into trees on the way down. I rock was jutting out from the ground and tore into my left thigh. I instantly felt warmth as blood started to pour down my leg. I don’t remember what happened next.

Here I lay. My leg is bleeding profusely and I think I think it’s broken. I’ve been here for three days. It’s been almost three years since I left Kansas. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know how far I am from Bend or from the ocean… I tried Ma. I hope you’re proud of me.

I saw Pa last night. He told me to stand and stop being such a wimp.. He told there’s work to do on the farm.

I will write for as long as I can. I have lost a lot of blood but my leg has gone numb

She’s here with me. I see her standing there. She’s so warm… I’m no longer alone. I’m not alone. I’m not alone. I’m not alo

Author's Note

I would love to expand and make this a book one day maybe? I had a lot of fun writing it and I like the plot a lot. Tell me what you think. Maybe what you would like to see more. I would like to include more detail of each setting that he comes across. Also of the people that he meets. Maybe not make it all one big journal entry. I don't know, just tell me what you think. Thanks.