I didn't want to runaway but I had to get away yo*

When I was in 2nd grade I wanted to run away. We lived in Tallahassee, Florida. The back of my house was a wooded area with great sink holes scattered through it. (If you are from Florida you know of the sink holes where the ground has just collapsed like a fallen cake and looks like a great volcano crater. They were really cool to ride up and down on your bicycles.) I told my sister of my plans to run away and she was just tickled to be of any assistance. Tarzan was my favorite show. I loved Jane, boy and of course Cheetah and thought, since I would be traveling through a wooded area, I would most likely run into Tarzan and his little family so I opened my suitcase and packed only underwear because well when you hang with Tarzan how much clothes do you really need? My sister filled a great big jar of water and suggested she might just walk me half way there. I looked at my house one last time and me with my suitcase and Sharon with my water set out on our journey through the woods. Now there was a sink hole gang back in those woods. This gang was made up of boys that made Huck Finn look like Shirley Temple. During our travels, as luck would have it, we came up on the Sink Hole Gang and they began to taunt us. They asked me what I was doing and I tried to explain in my little southern 2nd grade voice and then it happened. The leader of the gang looked down at my suitcase and I just remember thinking, "Oh no, please don't open my suitcase" because somehow Tarzan and Jane seeing my underwear seemed alot less embarrassing than this gang of bullies. And so it happened..he grabbed my suitcase and threw it down to the depths of the sink hole. (It seemed like a great Abyss but it was just about 20 feet deep.) My suitcase flew open and flying through the air like wounded birds were all my underwear. Sharon and I ran all the way home and by this time I guess Mamma had found my good bye note and took Sharon in a room and spanked her. I kinda felt bad that Sharon got a spanking and I didn't. I never got to experience life on my own or life with Tarzan and his family but I did get a glimpse of truth that running away generally never solves things it usually generates more obstacles along the way.

*From "Runaway" by Wyclef Jean

posted by Beverly at 11:20 AM