15.

 

I am being jostled awake. I’m in the slide, and some foreign arm is shaking me, trying to get me to wake up. “Jill Haven?” the voice questions me, and I am still half-awake. I just had the most bizarre dream. My stomach is churning, and I don’t think it’s from being hungry.        

A flashlight’s blinding beam shines into the slide, promptly ripping me from my REM cycle. Isn’t that what you call it? Someone is touching my shoulder, trying to gently wake me up.

“Jill Haven?” I suddenly feel really stupid, being curled up in this slide, in the middle of nowhere. Why am I here? Never mind, I just remembered. I’m glad I ran away. Well, me and Bethany that is. We kind of just left. I don’t know who is looking for me….

And fear shoots down my spine. Did Dad find us? What if he is going around trying to look for me? Who is this? I mean, this is what I get for randomly sleeping in some slide somewhere. What if this is some murderer. But the next sentence answers my question.

“Jill, my name is Officer Dugan. It’s alright; I just need to make sure you are okay. We just need to talk. How about you stand up?” Why are the police here?

I crawl out of the slide, and look at this man. He’s very kind looking, with deep, dark brown eyes and warm golden brown skin. He looks like he cares. Maybe. Don’t let your guard down.

The police lights are blinding, contrasting with the dark. And then I realize its nighttime still. I look around for Bethany, but I don’t see her. Panic shoots through me. What if she left?

“Where’s Bethany?” I ask softly, not looking the officer in the face. I look at the ground, and notice my feet are still bleeding. I look up and see if Bethany is hiding. Still, no Bethany.

“Who’s Bethany?” Officer Dugan pulls out his walkie-talkie looking thing as well as a little notebook. He purses his lips and he flips to a new page, and looks up with me with concern. Is she not here? Where could she have gone? And why would she leave me? Don’t say anything about her…

“No one.” I answer quietly, and realize that I am shivering. It’s not as warm as it was when I was running today. Or last night, or whenever.

 Then I see another car pull up. Out comes another officer, who introduces himself as Officer Hawkins.

“Hey, Ted, are we going to need EMT?” Officer Hawkins asks Officer Dugan. Dugan looks over my body quickly and frowns.

“Well……I don’t know, what do you think?” He shins his light on my forehead, “Is that a burn or a bruise?” he asks himself.

“Eh?” Hawkins answers, his shoes crunching against the gravel as he leans in to look at the injury on my forehead. I thought it looks better. 

“I don’t rightly know, Ted. Just let the father deal with it, she probably got it when she was trying to run away.”

My mouth forms a protest at this, but I say nothing. I feel so out of place, and I still don’t know where Bethany is…

“Do you know where you are, little miss?” Hawkins asks, and I recognize that southern twang.

I look around, and I know that I have no idea where I am. So I don’t answer, and I look at my feet, which are really dirty and bloody. I don’t feel any pain though. It can’t be too bad.

I see Hawkins exchange a glance with Dugan. Dugan goes back to his car and does something, probably signaling in that they “found me” or something.

“Is my dad looking for me?” I ask softly, my toe counting rocks on the ground. 22, 23, 24…

No answer. I look up for a moment, and Hawkins gives me a little look, kind of like what-do-you-think?

31, 32…

“Your daddy called in just about seven this evening, said you been gone all day, said somethin’ about a fight or misunderstanding…said you weren’t gonna come back unless he went lookin’ for you…”

46, 47, 48, 49…

So I have a “little talk” with the officers, and now I find myself in the patrol car. There is nothing to count in here. It smells weird, and I don’t like the weird panel between me and Officer Dugan. I feel like a criminal.

“It’s okay.” Bethany says, and I look up from the dirty carpeted floor with a start. Bethany is in the car. How’d she get in here?

“No, it’s not.” I reply softly. “We shouldn’t have run away….it was dumb. Now Dad is going to...”

“Excuse me?” Officer Dugan cuts in. I see his eyes connect with mine in the rear view mirror, and I can see confusion in them.

            I don’t answer him.

            “I don’t care what he is going to do…and you are going to do something. So you can’t run away, but you have to do something. Something. You really can’t just sit around all day talking to me. You can’t count away your problems. You can’t just sit around and “not care.” She says, her eyes blazing.

            “Shut up.” I say softly, wanting to drown out the problems.

            Dad is going to hurt me. I don’t know how, or when, but I will. I was bad. I didn’t do anything right…I shouldn’t have run off, it was impulsive. Like when people buy things when they don’t have the money. Then they have to get money from places that promise they “approve everyone” and have a cheesy name like “LendCash USA” or something…Don’t they know that all that money they loan out they will never get back?

            “What?” Officer Dugan says, looking at me again. “Did you tell me to shut up?”

            “No.” I answer quietly.

            He looks confused, and then redirects his gaze to the road.

            The tires crunch on the road beneath the car. We’re pretty far out, I guess…gravel roads?

            “Where are we?” I ask Bethany, looking out the darkened window.

            “Millville,” Officer Dugan answers.

            I wasn’t talking to you, I think.

            Millville is pretty far away from where I live, which is Bellport. Bellport is a pretty substantial city, probably over 100,000 people. Millville is of Bellport’s borders, probably around an hour away from my house. It’s a really small town, probably 1,000 people; mostly farming and the occasional building.

            “Which is pretty impressive, I mean. Stupid, but impressive. How long were you going for, kid?” Dugan asks me, his rich voice breaking the silence of the car.

            “Don’t know.” I say quietly. “Hours.”

            And it goes quiet, and stays that way for a while. My body aches so badly, and I kind of slump a little on that ripped up leather seat of the police car. I shouldn’t be here…I think. And my body cries for sleep.

            So I prop my head against the cold window and take a deep breath. Who cares?