The Run Away

The Run Away(Karolina Haladus) Sitting around in a country house and waiting for an idea to appear in my mind can be real torture. I kicked my gray soccer ball (that used to be white before all of the years that had worn it out) with all my might. I had absolutely nothing to do so I began to kick my dull, ruined and old soccer ball and then I quickly ran after it before it was out of sight, like always. I have been here for the summer in my step mom’s country house in upstate New York. Okay, there were things to do here like watering all of the plants and visiting my farm animal friends but I wanted a real adventure. I considered myself bored with completely nothing to do although there were a million possibilities out there. Cars rarely came on the streets so it was like a free for all. When I got bored of kicking the soccer ball, I rolled on the green fresh grass that is similar to a small hill. As I lay, I could smell the fresh grass just mowed rising to my nose as well as the sound of the bugs buzzing around and the crickets chirping a beautiful song. From this high point of view, I watched my sister as she lay on the colorful and steady hammock while she was playing with her animal toys. I could tell by her facial expression that she was flabbergasted with her extraordinary toys; meanwhile I was bored, staring into space. Jessica, my sister, is only five years old but she is really smart for her age.
The ridiculously strong wind gusted straight in my face. Suddenly, a bright idea appeared in my head. I thought of going to the store, which was about 15 minutes away and it has everything you need. This wasn’t the best idea and it truly wasn’t an adventure but I wanted to go so that my plan would not be obvious. Maybe my sister Jessica could hop along but before I asked her, I looked straight up at the foggy sky. There was a huge gray cloud shaped as a bunny’s head but you could still see the yellow bright sun peeking its head out from the evil dark clouds. It looked as if it may rain soon but maybe we will make it before the rain. Who knows what Mother Nature can decide? My step mom probably won’t let me go alone with Jessica because she claims that she is too young and I am not “trustworthy” enough. I ran toward Jessica and tried to ask her a couple of questions even though my step mom probably won’t let us go.
“So what are you reading?” I asked casually.
I tried to run the conversation smoothly and kindly.
“Book about art.” Jessica stammered.
“Oh that’s cool, by the way, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the store with me since I want to get a board game and you could finally get the candy you wanted?” I asked nicely.
“Okay!” She shrieked.
“Okay, but we have to ask Jenna first.” I snapped unhappily.
Jessica took her toys in her smooth hand and we headed inside the house. She placed them on the bed in our pink bedroom. I took my turquoise bag and without hesitation, threw my wallet inside the big bag. I added a couple of things in it. The room was pretty big since a king sized bed and a twin bed sat against the wall. We got all ready and walked over to the green and bright kitchen where my step mom, Jenna washed the dishes. She was washing the dishes? That was a first. Jenna’s hair is curly and short and she wore an apron so the water won’t drip all over her yellow blouse and orange skirt. In the outside she looked very nice, but in the inside, she was evil but pretty good at pretending to care about me, around others. She only likes Jessica and she hates me.
Last year during the winter, Jenna came back from a party and she noticed that her room was a mess. She made me sit outside in front of the house for an hour and then come back inside and clean her room. I got sick and I couldn’t go to school for a week! But that wasn’t the worse thing that happened. She reminded me everyday that I need to go to the hair salon to get a hair cut. I loved my hair and I would never get one, so last week during the night, she cut one side of my hair and when I woke up, I screamed on the top of my lungs. My hair is still tremendous! She would never do such a thing to Jessica. Jessica is too young but when she is ten years old, things will start to change for her, like they did for me.
“Mom, can we go to the store?” I asked politely. “I want to by a board game and we are running out of cereal.”
I spoke to her and said “Mom” because she hated when I called her “Jenna” in front of her.
“But it’s cold outside and their will possibly be a storm heading our way,” Jenna replied truthfully. She cleared her throat and began to speak again. “I don’t Jessica to get sick.”
“Come on, it’s not that cold, it’s summer! I doubt that there will be a storm; everyone in town has been saying that there will be a storm this whole week. Nothing happened yet so can we go?” I pleaded.
“You have to take extra care of Jess. I don’t trust you enough, she’s only five and you know that she gets out of control if she doesn’t get what she wants.”
Jessica just stared at us with gloomy eyes. In my mind, I wanted to scream and say that she doesn’t know Jessica as much as I do, but I shut my mouth.
“Mom, I’m already 12 years old. Can we please go? And plus, I can buy the strawberry yogurt you needed for the fruit cake that you’ll make today, if we go.” I told her.
“Alright then, go to the store around the corner, you guys know the rules or do you want me to remind-“ Jenna began.
Jessica cut her off.
“We know the deal!” she proclaimed.
We quickly and graciously left the house and we were on the way to the store. The gray clouds up in the sky swirled like gauzy curtains. I already had everything planned out in my head…
I hated a lot of things about Jenna. If things didn’t go her way, she would yell at me and the entire town would hear.
We scattered down the pale sandy path, through the hay yard, around the corner and we were almost in the store. We walked past a huge brick house and noticed the chatter of the family while they had a barbeque. My stomach grumbled, as I smelt the hotdogs. We didn’t ever have a family hangout after Dad left us a year ago. My real mom passed away four years ago, but she was in my heart forever. Then, Dad married Jenna and Jessica and I lived with them for 3 years, and last month Dad just disappeared.
The wind gusted in my face as my sister pushed the door to the store with both hands. But the door wouldn’t open. It started to drizzle and then heavy raindrops flew from the sky. I tried to pull the door but it still wouldn’t open.
Just then we saw a sign on the door that said that the store is closed because a thunderstorm is coming. I smiled to myself because my plan was beginning.
“Hey, do you want to go on a journey since the store is closed?” I asked Jessica.
“No I want to go home and play with my dolls.” She called.
“We can go to Coney Island and go on all those rides!" I informed her with a smirk.
“Coney Island! Yes! Yes!” Jessica screamed.
“Okay just follow me.” I said.
It was drizzling as we were bolting though the hay yard. We were almost at the bus top.
“Lets run before Jenna follows us!” I yelled.
I tried to run fast but my heart was pounding and my head kept on swaying because I kept thinking that this was the worse idea ever. I wanted to go back home but we were already there. Luckily, the W2 bus came in two minutes. I made up this idea by myself; however, I did not think that Jenna could come after us. Jessica and I got on the bus and I spotted our aunt. Well, Jenna’s sister.
“Duck! Run and sit down in the first row!” I whispered to Jessica as we tossed the coins to the bus driver. As our aunt looked out the window, we ran to take our seat. I reached into my turquoise bag and took out big glasses and a baseball hat.
“Here put this on.” I nervously whispered to my sister as I handed her the glasses.
I put on the baseball hat and looked out the window, so I wouldn’t look suspicious. Our aunt was sitting in the back row so she probably won’t see us, but just in case, we were prepared.
I looked out the window and I noticed that it was getting darker by each second and the sky looked dark and evil like monster’s eyes.
10 minutes passed and my aunt got off. Jessica and I were so relieved. As the bus stopped to pick up more people, we watched our aunt step out of the bus. Just then, Jessica knocked on the window to get her attention. Aunt Hailey looked around and noticed us.
“Jessica! Why would you do that!” I yelled at her.
Aunt Hailey’s mouth opened and we could see that she was yelling something and she took out her phone. She ran over to the entrance of the bus, but the bus took off. Jessica and I giggled.
“We are getting off on Coney Island, which is two stops away. Take off those glasses, it looks so silly!” I said, chuckling.
Jessica laughed as she threw my glasses in the bag.
We got off the bus and we were in 5th Avenue.
“Jessica! We got off at the wrong stop! This isn’t Coney Island.” I told her.
She looked very unhappy. We both stared at what we saw. We were in Manhattan in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“WOW! We are going there!” We said at the same time.
We went up the stairs and entered the building. I almost fainted when I saw the amount of people there. We hid inside the crowd and entered without paying. We walked around the museum for about 4 hours.
“Its so beautiful here!” I called to Jessica!
“Paintings!” She screamed as she pointed to the artwork hanged on the wall.
It was night and we heard the loudspeaker call, “The museum is closing in 5 minutes, the museum is closing in 5 minutes.”
We spotted a room with an old fashioned historical bed and quickly hid under it.
“Why are we hiding?” Jessica asked surprisingly.
“Shh!” I whispered as I heard and officer come in and check each room.
We stayed motionless under the huge bed for about 1 hour. I made sure all of the workers left before we got out of hiding.
“The cost is clear!” I shouted.
Jessica crept out from under the bed and sighed.
“I’m hungry and I want to go home!” She proclaimed.
“We need some money! I have a great idea! While we were observing the museum, I remember seeing a fountain. Lets go there!” I said.
“Okay.” Jessica responded in a tired voice.
We went down the first flight of stairs and noticed a fountain. Dip your hands in the water and collect all of the coins you can get!” I screamed excitingly.
In total, we collected $7 dollars and 20 cents. On our way back to the historical bed, Jessica grabbed my attention by pointing to a vending machine.
“Can we get chips and water?” She pleaded.
I tossed $4 in the machine and an iced cold water bottle came out, along with a bag of potato chips. We graciously went upstairs and sat on the bed as we ate our treat.
“This is the best adventure I ever had!” Jessica said happily.
“Yes! Plus, it’s without Jenna!” I added.
“Lets get some sleep!” I then said.
I knew that the museum opens at 10:00 so I had to wake up around 8:00.
It was hard for me to sleep that night. I was sleeping on the floor and Jessica slept on the bed. I woke up 8:20 and immediately went downstairs to get a snack. I waited for Jessica to get up and it was already 10:00. Clusters of people began to show up so I decided to leave the museum and get some fresh air.
“Lets go take a walk.” I advised my sister.
As we were walking around the town, I noticed a poster on nearly every tree. My face was pale and my stomach started to hurt. It said "MISSING GIRLS" and the sign had our picture on it.
We spent the whole day hiding in the museum and making sure no one spotted us. That night we followed the same process as yesterday. When I woke up, I was terrified. I jumped up and noticed Jessica wasn’t sleeping on her bed. Instead, there was a picture of her and next to it was a note.
Dear Maggie,
I am sorry I made you sad. I woke up early in morning and I go outside the museum to buy eat. On the way, some policemen took me. I told them that I had to use bathroom so I went to drop this letter off.
Love you,
Jessica
I tear rolled down my check. It was over! I am officially alone! But I know that I can’t give up or show myself because I will get punished. I took a deep breath. I will see Jessica soon. But right now, my next mission was to find Dad. But where do I start? That was the next question.