Runaway

     I made my way down the side of the railroad tracks. The grass was still wet from the previous nights rain. Moss was growing on the trees that threw shadows on the ground. The shadows seemed to mourn for me. I smiled weakly and kept walking. My hair was dirty parts of it matted. I hadn't showered in days. My only shower was in nearby rivers or rain even lakes. I didn't come across lakes that often. I had long ago lost my shoes and these were my last pair of pants and a shirt. My pants were flimsy and covered in holes I'd have to go by some houses and look for some new ones, my once white shirt now muddy and soiled with rainwater. I soon reached a break in the trees seeing a quiet neighborhood before me. After so long I'd mastered sneaking around in peoples trashcans and black bags for clothes...even food. I dashed into the neighborhood quietly looking into the black bags that were near the street. I found a couple of pairs of pants that looked fairly new. Whoever owned these pants must have simply grown out of them. I walked down a few houses to a bigger pile of black bags. I found about four shirts and even a pair of shoes my size. You wouldn't believe how relieved I was to find those. I slipped them on my feet loving the feel of them. I smiled leaving the neighborhood without a soul ever seeing me. I was a ghost to this place. No one ever saw me and no one ever noticed that it was my face on the news, in the paper and on the billboards. Everywhere I looked I saw my face. Missing Child approximately 5ft 2 and 112 pounds, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes who's name is Emily Leanne Cade. I've been missing for about three months now and I have no plan of being found. I ran away for a reason. Reasons no one knows and no one will know. They're my secrets and as long as I keep hidden no one will have to know. It's just me the world around me and me, forever roaming from place to place. Whether I live or die is unknown to me. I left the small neighborhood sticking to the shadows once again. I walked silently when the sound of a siren broke the silence. I turned my eyes wide seeing a police car coming down the road.

Reviews

[AyJayP]

Like "Tell," which I read first, this piece has an effective simplicity, kind of like a portrait--I can imagine an accompanying illustration with the girl ducking by the trash cans as the police car approaches. It tells a story with very spare description.

A few grammatical things:
"nights rain" should be night's rain
"My hair was dirty parts of it matted" seems to be missing a word or two: My hair was dirty and parts of it were matted.
"My only shower was in nearby rivers or rain even lakes." is missing something, maybe: My only shower was in nearby rivers, or rain, or even lakes.
"I had long ago lost my shoes and these were my last pair of pants and a shirt." I'd write as: I had long ago lost my shoes, and I was wearing my last pair of pants and last shirt.
A few more punctuation things I picked up, but I'll leave it at that for now.

One other minor thing--it struck me as strange that the girl finds all these clothes in people's garbage bags (people don't throw out clothes that often, she'd have to have gotten really lucky). Maybe if she was rooting through a Salvation Army drop-off bin, it would make more sense?