• The wrong sounded so right, she know why. They all had her wrong. It was the clouded evening, with the spark of the stars, sun and the glow of the moon faintly coming out. she followed the train tracks west, a book bag on her back. a hoop around her shoulder. Her dyed red hair was beggining to mat in a dread- lock type state from not brushing it. The girl, she didnt know enough of life...she couldnt figure out where the begining met the end.. her tender mind felt scolded. she got into a car in the back of a sitting train facing the west. Here goes nothing...or something... she said to herself.. After about a half an hour, it finally started to move. she crawled into the corner and slid out a pillow and blanket... time to lay her head down and rest. "I don't know how far this things gonna go, but at least it's something...anywhere but here..." She couldnt sleep...running away gave a great sense of anxiety, almost guilt. Who could sleep in the back of a moving train anyway? The smell of dust, a mildew about over came her, but she had to stay. "I was a lonely child, but they've got it all wrong..." she watched from the corner as the train passed farmers fields, when you lived all your life in the suburbs, you'd watch the fields turn into houses. theres no where to go when you don't drive. The beautiful land, turning into a bleak colorless row of houses... watching familys move in, your neighbors never spoke to you... The folks next door had the sterotypical picture perfect family. The dad always played soccer with his son, his cheerleader daughter in your grade with her boyfriend. Taking vows of "D.A.R.E" you were suprised even still existed. And her? She wasn't exactly a "druggie" per say but she'd had her fair round-about of LSD, alcohol and pot. She watched for about two hours, as twilight became night... "Where the hell am I?" she thought..."doesn't matter now. " She took a guess that it was around 11o'clock when the train haulted to a stop. She slipped out of the freight car, cautiously looking around for sketchy people she knew hung around the tracks. Maybe they had no where to go as well. Maybe they were like her? But the rule of thumb- trust no one in the yard. she carried a knife for protection and prayed to God she never would have to use it. she kept it in the lining of her long skirt, a platic case to cover the blade. the bottoms of her shoes were pretty warn, it's all she had at the time... "maybe I should have stayed in the car... where am I supposed to sleep? She didn't save up to buy a plane ticket to go out west, as a runaway minor, she knew they'd track her down. She was so confused, "what do I do?" as she wondered around the yard looking for another train to "freighthop" as you will, she lost her sense of direction. "which way is west?...s**t!" She began to question her decision to runaway... but the driving force inside of her said "no...this is what you want...this is what you've been thinking about for years!" She remembered the book she read when she was a child. "The box car children", she laughed at the thought... so poorly written and unrealistic. she always knew it was bullshit. she knew there'd be tough times and fun times being a nomad, she knew looking up how to live the nomadic life in modern America wouldnt do any good... Nomads don't have time to post some hulla-ballooie tutorial on websites. You live, you learn, you stumble, you get back up. But right at that moment? she stumbled. It was getting later and later and there she was, trapped in a God forsaken train yard, alone, tiny, seventeen...tired... she drew a heart shape in the dirt with her foot...then rubbed it away. "A heart really? so ******** cliche" She found a tree with some bushes around it. she crawled in and was able to at least lay down...she got that natural creepy-crawly feeling you get when you walk through the woods, she hadnt even considered the bugs. It's all she had though "just accept it, damn it!" She wouldnt be able to tell, what was East and what was West untill sunrise. A compass would have really come in handy. "Going Whheeest" she said to herself, doing what she could to make the situation at the moment seem lighter. With that, she rolled herself into a cocoon with her blanket, covering her head to keep away the bugs. She woke up a few hours later to the sound of a train starting to move. she hurried up and got her glasses out of their case, stuffed her pillow back in the bag but still covered her shoulders with the blanket. She looked towrds the sky, where the sun was barely out. East... she'd only gotten a few hours of sleep, but was ready to move on. "I need to move fast!" She ran through the yard, checking the sounds of the engines on the trains..which one was ready to go West? Will anyone start loading the cars and find me? no time to think of that, the time was now. one car was open and begining to move in the right direction, the only problem was, there were passengers on board...cows, the cows themselves were the least of her worries. "Well, thats west allright", but she knew someone would have to feed them, thus finding her in there. Damn it think!" she was willing to risk it, if the train slowed to a stop, she could just jump right on out before they caught her. -well, at least she'd make "friends" on the way, and so it was, the train picked up speed, right towrds the west... she made her place in the hay, checking for waste, she couldnt afford at this point to getting anything gross on herself, there was no water besides what the cows had to was off the the three containers of body wash she'd packed. she leaned into the corner, so exhausted from the little sleep she'd had in the past few days, she dozed off dispite of the cows "mooing" and the bumps of the tracks. She woke up after awhile, not sure of how long she'd been asleep. she couldnt see the position of the sun, but the train was moving fast. She didn't have a place in mind as to where exactly she wanted to end up. It was like taking the road to nowhere, with only the direction "west" in her mind, the direction so many young people dreamed of going...and she was going alright...trying to be as discrete as possible, God help her if anyone were to catch her. She'd just always felt so unloved, so alone... So many people had just up and left. Tired of being abandoned, tired of growing close to people only to watch them leave and not look back. It was her turn this time, to never stay in one place. How long can this go on? She wondered, knowing being a nomad can't be forever. A grim reality of homelessness began to play like a movie clip in her mind. Her art talent and preforming was all she had on her side, not much, yet, it was something, better than nothing, which ironically was another thing she had plenty of in the moment. NOTHING. "******** it" she said to herself, in a state of apathy. Worry or concern was something she knew she couldnt harbor in the moment. She'd already made the choice to run, miles away from home at this point. "Am I still even in Ohio?" Oh, what was the use of even knowing. I'm just West...West... the word so many times repeating in her head, it didn't even sound like a word anymore. Time seemed to be moving so slowly now, She couldnt distinguish second from minutes...or even the minutes from hours... she had some money saved up, but hardly enough food, or even water. When she decided to run, those simple, important things such as food and water didn't occure to her. She was too full of adrenaline to tell if she was hungry or not; so she didn't eat, she knew she needed to save it untill she couldnt take the hunger anymore. As the train moved on, she looked out the crack of the door, trying to keep dustance from the cows that she only gently patted on the side. The houses became less and less, and the fields became more and more. "Ahh, I'm in the right direction" she thought, or at least, so she'd hoped. When the train finally came to a hult, she knew, she had to leave right then, she forced the heavy, sliding door open, and jumped out... someone had to tend to the cows. She tip-toed through the train yard in a hypervigilant state before reaching a road. The road wasn't full of nothing to her reliefe, she saw a gas station, a car wash, a diner and several road signs pointing directions to the highways... she made her way into the diner to buy a cup of cheap coffee. a older middle aged couple caame and sat down beside her. "You look tired miss!" the man said to her, his wife sitting beside him with the aura of thick perfume radiating in all directions. That type of perfume always smells the same. Just prefume. She thought for a minute, all she could say back was "yeh..." "how old are you? where you going?" She didn't really want to be spoken to. "No offense sir...my age doesnt matter. I'm a big girl...but I don't know, really. I'm just a drifter. trying to go West"...she was appauled by her own honesty. She could have at LEAST made up a bull s**t story so they wouldnt suspect anything. And really? how stupid, she thought...my age doesnt matter? That doesnt sound fishy at all. "West huh..." the man said. So, he continued "whats with the hula hoop?" She ignored the questions and went to pay for her coffee and tip the waitress before walking back outside, at this point the sun in the middle of the sky. s**t. She looked up only to see a road sign pointing to the direction of East, and another one West. Thank God. Her feet hurt, but she still had a sense of excitement. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this!" She'd lost any feeling of fear at this point. she'd just spent the night sleeping in the train yard with the majority of the time in the back of freight cars. Now what? she decided to do the inevitable, the main and almost only source of transpertation of all nomads in the 21st century, the risky but usefull hitch-hiking. As she walked the the road she kept her right arm straight out with her thumb sticking in the air. Most cars that passed paid her no mind. Why should they trust her? She may be a tiny little red headed girl, but hell, anyone could carry a pistol. She did have a knife hidden in the lining of her long, bohemian looking skirt. Finally a car slowed down. It was a concerned looking mom type of woman. "Sweetie are you okay?" "Yeh..." she said still almost too tired to make sense of anything coming out of her mouth. "uh, can I have a ride?" "okay...said the woman slightly hesitating". "Yeah, I know, you have a right to hesitate, especially these days...people do some crazy s**t, don't worry, do I look like I'm a serial killer?" The woman unlocked her car doors and for respect, she got into the back. "Where exactly do you want to go? the woman asked in a quiet voice. it almost seemed like she regreated letting a strange girl in her car. "I dunno...anywhere your going that's facing west". she could tell the woman had a lot of questions spinning in her head. The girl you know, she looked young, she had a hula hoop and a back pack. Anyone would wonder what in the hell she was doing, if it werent somehow obvious she was a runaway. Hey uh, if you arent going that far, just drop me off at a main road headed that way, okay? "Yeah, what ever you wish" the woman said starting to drive. "whats your name girl?" she asked. "My name? she thought...oh s**t..." Her name was Kim, but, she needed a alterego almost. To make up a life story, she could no longer be "Kim" anymore. She hadnt thought of any of this earlier. "China" she said, not even thinking. "Like the country?" The woman said looking in the rear view mirror raising one eyebrow like she didn't believe it. "Yeh, "China" said. Well, China, lucky for you, I live about 10 miles West of here, but then I need to get onto the main highway going north. "Yeh okay, Kim...now "China" murmered still to tired to give a s**t about what was going on. As the two road silently from that point on, the girl couldnt think of anything but the sense of reliefe that finally SHE was the one running away, that from this point untill whenever the end of this adventure would be, she'd be the one leaving. After about 15 or so minutes, the woman pulled into a bus station, "Well, this would be about as west...well, about as close to a proper place to drop you off" "Hey thanks!" said from now on, "China." You're welcome, nice to meet you, as the woman started to pull away, China yelled out "HEY!" the woman stopped with her window rolled down "yes?" "You're a nice woman miss...be carefull picking up strangers!" The woman half smiled before pulling away. Now what?