Monsters Are Real

So the second time I ran away I didn't really run. Dad was being pretty careful about leaving marks. All the local kids had marks, so it was well known that they all beat their children but they didn't go school with swollen eyes and black and purple bruises in their eyes. Bad blood leaked from their eyes as mine did. Dad had been in WW2 and before that dad had a monster for a mother, Nora. What a bitch she was. She had come to stay just after mom died and dad would go out drinking every night when he came home she would wait up to tell him what ever she could think of and dad would just go nuts and beat the living hell outta all 3 of us.

 

 I forget just what had happened just about 3months, but we all were getting the hell knocked out of us when dad found out Nora was paying to him, In the middle of beating us she started packing her things the next morning and was gone. When we got home from school she moved into the Beverly hotel and had found her long lost brother and was sitting in the hotel dining room waiting on him to come and join her for breakfast. When he had arrived to the table he found her face down in her oatmeal dead as a door nail. How poetic was that; we all heard about it and sang the witch is dead like the Wizard of Oz. School was out and things weren't so bad but back to Panama home. For boys you fought or got beat up. You got a five dollar allowance if you were good. I watched as some of the boys tried to run off and the staff set traps for them

 

Broken legs, arms  and fingers,  cracked ribs cracked heads, it was a free for al.l I was 14 when I arrived there. I was a fast learner.  Paul Killgore and I had made plans to escape, It was winter in Kansas City just outside Lee summits no. After bed check we got out side at 11 pm. We ran across the compound and got to bridge. There was only one way across sitting down on them 3ft water line and scooting across we made it. It took an hour and twenty minutes. We crossed the highway five miles down the road. We made it to Lee summits and I don't know whose idea it was but Paul had a butter knife and we walked up on a 69 Chevy station wagon with the window down. Paul got in and stuck the butter knife in the key and started the car.  I jumped in he put it in reverse and off we went. Being kids with no place to go I wanted to go to Canada.  Paul just wanted to go as well. We headed into what we thought was Canada but started overheating and pulled into a station with the hood up looking like we knew what we were doing

 

Just then a state trooper pulls in an says can I help you guys  and asked for our ID. We said no we were camping and  were lost. The trooper said we  guys have to leave. We got some water in the car and got it started and ended up heading towards Pittsburg. As soon as we got to the town a cop got on us and the race was on. Driving 120mhp in the fog as fast as that thing would go we missed the turn and went off an embankment a 100ft into the air hitting ground flipping end over end 6 times and into a reservoir. We swam out and started up the embankment as I got about 40ft from the top the cop says stop right  there and  put your hands up or I'll shoot.

 

 I replied asking them to go ahead and shoot, then falling to the ground as if I had been shot as I thought I was the blood streaming from my face. The ambulance was already there rushing me to hospital. The doctor came in and said I needed stitches. I aksed him to let me go he said no I have to give you a local and then I can sew you up. I said no needles just sew me up. My grandmother came in just about that time crying putting her arms around me.  I'm fine Grandma well they got a court order and did that to me.

 

I woke up in a children's center my face dryer to a pillow with blood pulling it from my face slowly.  I spent the next 7months there trying to figure a way out. It was all electronic doors windows everything if you touched it sounded an alarm. Playing cards worked on the doors as the staff went through, If you  stuck a card in the latch and being fast put a piece of tape to hold it in place the contacts made contact and the alarm wouldn't sound

 

Transport day came and I was going somewhere else.  I didn't know where as we got into the state car and left the center. We came to a stop and jumped out of car going all different ways. They all got caught me I was still on the run. I knew where I was going to the tank at old oil well drum homeless people would stay in. But as I was headed there on the tracks,  Dennis my cousin showed up on horseback an turned me in

 

So they have me now taking me to jail.  I stayed there 3 days and went in front of the judge. I come to find out judge Laswald was the one taking my mother's social security checks and not putting it into a trust fund for me later. He and Bob were stealing my inheritance money. Now I am  pissed but I can do anything. Sending me back to Panama home for boys.  I'm screwed. On the way there downtown Kansas City I jumped out the car in rush hour.  I was lost in the crowd and I  headed to Canada have to hitch a ride across the border. I made it across