On the Run by M Zeigler (short story to read TXT) 📖

his and handles these roads a lot better.  The smile already plastered on my face brightens when I look down at the road and realize I’m following the same exact tire marks that my father, uncle, and aunt leave here every day when traveling up and down this road.

An unsettling thrill overcomes my emotions knowing I’ve matched my dad and uncle at something, now if I can beat them at their own game I’ll feel even more accomplished! Upon coming to the last straight away in the road I ease on the gas a little more so that I can get to the forked road ahead a little more quickly. Taking the left fork will lead you to a dead end about five miles down, but going right will always guide me straight up to the top of the hill where my father’s home is nestled down in its own little cozy outcropping on the hill.

Upon seeing the familiar front yard of my father’s home I begin to down shift, I sincerely doubt anyone currently inside the house would really want me parking the car in the living room.

Rolling closer to the driveway I see that my dad, aunt, uncle, and cousins have all gathered outside and waiting for my arrival. My uncle has a worrisome look on his face from where he stands under a rather tall pine tree, he knows what I’ve been going through at my step father’s and he feels guilty. He feels guilty because sadly he was in no financial situation to help at the times I was at my worst.

 “Bonners!” My cousins Chloe and Becca exclaims as I cut the engine and step out of the car slamming the door behind me, both of my cousins and my aunt run forward eagerly wrapping their arms around me informing me of how much they have missed my presence.

Looking at my aunt Emily, and Chloe I realize the two still look as identical as they always, both have gorgeous bleach blonde hair and aqua marine colored eyes, the only difference between the two is that Chloe is ten and my aunt is…she probably wouldn’t be happy if I gave you that information. Chloe is considered Emily miniature just at a younger stage of life. Becca looks more like my uncle Alex, sandy brown hair and green blue eyes, she’s more inquisitive about any and everything which is just like Alex. He was always getting himself into trouble growing up simply because he was to curious for his own safety.

“I told you I’d get here in one peace.” I laugh at their fearful exclamation all the while returning their group hug. I do end up stepping away from my Aunt Emily, Chloe, and my middle cousin Becca only to find myself looking up at Jack who is my father, and Alex. I realize now, they are both worried about me, for good reason to. Jack really has more of a cause to look guilty than he does to look worried, my own father didn’t believe a word about the abuse until the cops called him a month ago and told him I was in jail until they decided who started the fight, me or Michael, which is my step father.

Jack continues to give me a sad look, I reply with a look of my own that says all is forgiven and to let it go. Both men give a curt nod as they turn back for the front door knowing all if forgiven and there is no sense crying over spilled milk.

At the open front door Alex tries to step inside at the same time my dad does only for my dad to shove him aside bringing a smile to my face. I don’t care how old brothers are; they will always have their little childish tiffs. Alex smacks the back of Jack’s head when he passes into the house causing my dad to stop short and force Alex to trip over him. Emily notices this littler interaction and gives an irritated sigh; I have to imagine its hard being the only true adult in the house.

Once I’m released from the death grip of my little cousin’s hug, I take lead towards the front door that hasn’t changed a bit since I was here last, in fact nothing about the front of the house has changed. The front door still needs to be sanded and re-stained, and the brick wall that makes up flower planters in front of the large bay windows still need to be rebuilt. The flower plants in the boxes are half dead, and the lawn, well let’s just say, what lawn? The once green grass has turned to bolt, leaving a giant yellow spot where I once used to sit and watch my cousins ride around on their bikes.

 I momentarily stop at the door and look back to my car for my little dog who adopted me several years ago. “Ratt!” I call out for my friend, a fifteen pound Chihuahua peeks over the dashboard with raised ears. I figured if I was going to have a little ‘dog’ I should at least name him after a legendary rock band. After a couple failed attempts at jumping I see the black fuzz ball leap out of the car, he runs in the door after my cousins, and aunt enter.

Fully Inside the house now I hear Merle Haggard’s song tonight the bottle let me down playing quietly from the back yard; this is my grandfather’s favorite song. Hearing it starts to bring tears to my eyes, but then I remember that he isn’t gone, not really, I somehow know that he’s with me everywhere I go.

Taking a look around the house I also see that the house hasn’t really changed much either, and I’m happy about that, we still have the same old dingy green carpets. The massive seventy two inch TV still sits proudly to my left. The white and beige floral printed couch still sits directly across the room under a large bay window that looks out into our back yard. A deep mahogany coffee table is placed in front of the couch with news papers spread out on top of it, and a plastic trash bag on top the paper protecting the wood from whoever decided to clean their guns today. There’s a 9. Millimeter, a 44. Magnum revolver plus a matching set of 22. Revolvers that we use to take care of the squirrel problem.

Once I’m fully standing in the living room I take a better look around, firstly noticing the two recliners that sit against the right hand walls beside the fire place. The little grey tabby that Chloe rescued is sitting under the end table between the two chairs looking at Ratt with big yellow eyes. He’s a gray Egyptian Mau that everyone has really come to love dearly considering his loud howl annoys all of us.

“Bonnie! Quit slacking and get out here!” I hear Alex call jokingly from the back yard.

With a new determination I head off to the back yard to find that Jack has already started his dirt bike and is cruising around the built in swimming pool leaving tire marks here and there as he goes. My aunt and cousins are over in the ramshackle rooms trying to get their bathing suits on.

Alex is already over working on his dirt bike which is parked up under the old avocado tree that is fully adorned with year round Christmas lights. Which, in our case the Christmas lights consist of old tail lights that have broken wind screens, Jack picked them up at his work, an old run down auto body shop a few miles from home. The only new items in our yard are the zip ties and duck tape that hold up the rails on the left side of the deck, I also see someone hung a few car tire Christmas wreathes from the support posts holding up the patio roof.

 All six of my family’s dogs are woofing around the yard, the two labs Izzy and Bella are chasing lizards in the ivy plants down the hill beneath the deck. Ruger, the black pit-bull is already over playing with Ratt being ever so careful as to not hurt him. Buck, which is Ruger’s brother who looks like a pit-bull Great Dane mix, is chasing his tail by the pool pump which is nothing new, that dog isn’t exactly the sharpest stick in the woods. We also have, Eric, and Kyle who are lounging under the many decorative shade trees beside the Gazebo, they are the two seniors of the dog family. My dad rescued those two several years back, they were dumped on the freeway on a rainy day in the middle of rush hour traffic. My dad being the redneck that he is, named them after an adult cartoon show that he was obsessed with at the time.

“Why don’t you go bring your luggage in, your old room is still the way you left it…well, there might be some more boxes in there but it’s mostly the same.” Alex announces pointing with his wrench to the single upstairs room above us.

Feeling that I’ve missed nothing in the last years I’ve been gone, and giving no reply, I quietly turn for the slider door and head for the stairway hall that is to the left of the kitchen’s bar. Yes, we have a fully stalked bar in our kitchen, most rich person in home bars are stocked with fine wines, in our house we took out the wine rack and put in three medium sized refrigerators, two are stocked with various types of beer, the third is stocked with whiskey, rum, and Bourbon.

That’s one of the many reasons I love being back in this house, everything is so laid back, I don’t have to talk constantly or listen to other people yammer about useless nonsense. Which was something my mother was notorious for, talking about everything and nothing, not to mention she often times would say things that were just so ludicrous that you wanted to smack her with an urban dictionary and a thesaurus. My mother, Angeline, also had a huge issue with screaming at people, I guess most mothers are prone to yelling but Angeline was worse that most. Have you ever seen those kids in stores that just stand there screaming I want it? And they are screaming so loud that you wonder why no one has done anything about her? Angeline is the child, she has the same mentality as the two year old does, when she wants something she will demand having it right then and there and if you tell her to hold on. The good lord above can hear her screeching! Plus she’s rude, and just does terrible thing to other people, particularly me. Now I know most daughters say that, but, I have a right to claim abuse. Often times when Michael would start smacking me around my mother would just stand there and watch doing absolutely nothing to stop him.

Living here there is not much in the way of arguing, the worst of arguing is just the typical argument over homework and the occasional mess that the girls are being too lazy to pick up. For the most part we are all happy go lucky, and very relaxed. We go out on the weekends, usually hiking, camping, or dirt bike riding, sometimes all of the above. And if the season approves we also will go fishing in some of the most remote places.

Walking up the stair case hallway leading up to my room I’m greeted by the pictures that I hung up when I was ten, I lived here from age ten to fourteen. These four years were the best four years of my life, it was the first time since I was three that no one was beating me for no reason, I wasn’t