Escape from the Ozarks

The girl with the dark blue backpack sat on the park bench as she watched the neighborhood of homes. From a distance her age could not be distinguished as she was hunched down into her gray parka with the hood thrown over her head. She was hungry, tired, dirty, and miserable. As several neighborhood boys walked by her on their way to the basketball court, they sneered and laughed as they pointed at her. Her jeans and shoes were old and worn and she was thin, maybe even considered gaunt. One boy noticed that she cried as they passed, and he felt a little guilty, but he didn’t bother her. The boys went to the court and started their game. The girl knew she couldn’t sit here much longer without attracting too much attention and she definitely didn’t want that. Even here a cop car could drive past and notice her and the cops stop and ask questions. But she needed to wait a while longer, just until dark.

Then she was going to break her promise to her Mama that she had made to her before she left home. Her Mama had made her promise to be true to God, her faith in Him, and to herself, and to remember the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. The girl was sitting there planning how to break and enter a home and steal, and that was not keeping her promise. She didn’t believe that breaking and entering and stealing was what God wanted of her and it sure wasn’t keeping the faith and she felt guilty about it, but her survival instincts took over.

This was the best area of this very small town – village actually, and it was quiet for the most part and she supposed safe. She had learned in the past two months that small towns were the best places to find houses that she could sneak into for a short period. Most people in small towns felt safer and more trusting and often left their doors unlocked. Fortunately the weather was beautiful, in the 70s for a high temp with, and it was dry, with a few lazy clouds floating in the sky and a cool breeze – perfect for someone that was homeless. Since it was late spring, surely someone in this neighborhood was on vacation. All Luella had to do was watch, and wait. She saw one house down towards the end of a block long street that didn’t have a car outside anywhere and didn’t seem to have any activity around it. That looked like a promising possibility, but now she would need to wait until the boys left.

The boys finally tired of their game and wandered off down the street, giving her the once over on the way. She was glad they left and she was alone once again. Since the experiences that had happened in the parks in Canon City, and Gunnison, she was really afraid of boys, or men.

While she had been waiting in Canon City to catch a ride, a guy on a motorcycle had come along and offered her a ride to the next town where he attended college. He introduced himself and told her he was going to Gunnison where he attended college. He looked and sounded okay, so she accepted the ride. He was nice and everything was fine until they arrived at the park in Gunnison. As she started to get off the bike, he took hold of her arm and asked her, “Hey, you’re hungry, aren’t you, and tired? Come on up to my dorm room and I’ll get you something to eat, then you can shower and rest before you try to find another ride.”

Since he had been decent so far, and she was so very inexperienced and naive, she went with him. He made a sandwich for her and after she ate, she took a shower and dressed. Just as she came out of the shower, once again in her old jeans and parka, he grabbed her and dragged her to the bed. Then she saw that all he had on were his underwear pants, so she knew. He intended to breed with her. She hadn’t yet learned the word “rape”. But since she had grown up on a farm and watched the animals, and since she had read quite a bit, she knew what he wanted of her. She had also learned a few self-defense tricks on the farm from her papa and brother, so she laid on her back on the bed and let the boy undo her jeans and pull them down but when the boy started to get on top of her she brought her knee up hard between his legs. He howled, grabbed the damaged part, and rolled to the side. She jumped off the bed, pulled up her jeans, grabbed her backpack, and fled. She ran out of the building as quickly as possible, then spied a McDonald’s restaurant just across the street, so she ran there and went in to the restroom and hid in a stall. She didn’t know how long she could stay there but hopefully long enough for the boy to think that she had caught another ride and traveled on her way. She spent what she thought were several hours there, then quietly emerged and walked out of the restaurant behind a group of college kids. Since the boy wasn’t anywhere in sight, she made her way on down the street to the bus stop. There she used the very last of her money for a ticket to Montrose and finally was on her way. She didn’t know what she would do when she reached Montrose, but God would help her think of something.