Life Clip Number Six: Hopping the Train

This "life clip" goes back to when I was thirteen. I, and two other foster kids, I'll call them Tom and Jerry because I don't remember their names, decided we were going to run away. For me, it was about the adventure and not that I disliked the foster home or my foster parents. I really liked living there but I had just finished reading, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by a guy who called himself Mark Twain probably because he didn't think Samuel Langhorne Clemens was classy enough. My, what adventures that Finn character had. Where I got the crazy notion I'd have some of the same escapades, I don't know. Would a kid of my age have more thrills on the run than living on a 740 acre farm? Well, on with the life clip.

I, Tom and Jerry decided we'd be smart about running away. We were not going to do the same thing my brother did when he and his friend ran away from elementary school. If one of us saw a cop we all were going to hide instead of standing there gawking around going, "Where? Where? Where?" He found out where all right and he and his buddy got a ride home in the back seat of a sheriff's car.

Here's the plans we made. We'd tie several pieces of baling twine together to make a rope and lower our clothes out our upstairs bedroom window while everyone was watching Lawrence Welk or some other show they found fascinating. We'd sneak our clothes through the field behind the house over to a little wooded area. Then we would come back to the house and go to bed. Sometime around two in the morning we would slip out while everyone slept, gather our clothes and beat-feet-it down to the railroad tracks where we would wait for a train to stop. Hopping a boxcar would be easy and away we would go.

Here's what we did. We gathered several strands of twine on a cool October evening and tied them together. I lowered the clothes out the window, which wasn't the smartest thing to do since the electrical wires connected to the house just below the window. I don't know if I would have been a French fried critter if the clothes touch the wires, but I kept thinking it was a pretty stupid stunt.

I made sure we didn't take so many things it would be noticeable. Once the clothes hit the ground I joined Tom and Jerry outside. We gathered them up and raced across the field. Halfway to the woods I realized I had my big yellow raincoat dangling over my back. I probably looked like a yellow elephant trotting through a wide open space. Somehow no one saw us.

We placed all the stuff we were going to take in a pile. Plopped down next to it. Then started supposing.

"Suppose we over sleep?" Tom asked.

"I'll see we don't," I said. How I intended to do that was beyond me but I had to say something to reassure him.

"Suppose we wake someone up?" Jerry asked.

"Naw, everyone sleeps so soundly they'll never hear us," Tom said.

"Suppose the train doesn't stop?" I asked.

We all agree there would be other nights.

"Suppose a bum kicks us off the train?" Jerry asked.

Suppose this, suppose that. The next thing I knew we supposed ourselves out of running away.

"I might as well get rid of these matches," I said. Being the firebug I was, I add, "Why don't I build a little fire so we can get warmed up?"

We all thought that was a fantastic idea so we gathered up pine needles and, oblivious to the increasing wind, I lit them ablaze. Flames darted everywhere. Climbed four feet up every tree around us. We jumped and stomped on them. I grabbed my raincoat. Beat the trees. Finally the last flicker was out. We tumbled to the ground exhausted.

"I sure didn't expect that," I said between huffs.

"Neither did I," Jerry said. "That almost got out of control."

"Yeah." Tom joined the conversation. "Then we wouldn't have only gotten into trouble for trying to run away, but also for starting a forest fire."

"Let's get this stuff back into the house," I said.

"You can lower the rope out the window and I'll tie the clothes to it," Jerry said.

"No," I said. "I'm not pulling anything up with those electrical wires there."

"How will we get them upstairs?" Tom asked.

"We'll go in through the basement door," I told them. One side of the lower part of the house was exposed. "When we get to the top of the basement stairs I'll go in and make sure everyone watching TV. If it's clear, I'll give a signal. You two beat your butts upstairs with the clothes as fast and quietly as you can."

"What if it isn't clear?" Jerry asked.

"Then you wait," I said.

"What will we do if someone sees us?" Tom asked.

"Then I guess we're screwed," I said. "But I'm sure they'll be too busy staring at the tube."

We gathered up our things, dashed back across the field and into the basement. Crept up the stairs. I nonchalantly strolled into the hallway. Peeked into the living room. Everyone glared at the screen. I gave the signal. Tom and Jerry darted to the safety of our bedroom.

The adventure was over. We never hopped the train. Never even got out of our own backyard, so to speak, and no one except the three of us knew about it--or so I thought until I got into trouble for something a month later.

"I know about your running away episode," my foster dad said.

My mouth must have hung open. How did he find out? Then it hit me. One of us must have told my brother. He was no tattletale but if he knew anything confidential, he had to blab to someone. Telling him was like renting a vehicle with loud speakers mounted on it and driving up and down the neighborhood announcing our deepest, darkest, most private secrets.

I didn't get into trouble for that because I didn't actually run away. I just think he wanted me to believe there was very little I did that he didn't find out about.

I never again ventured running away. Nor was it ever mentioned again.

If you enjoyed this you may like to read my other "life clips":
Life Clip Number One: Rubbernecking is Not a Good Idea
Life Clip Number Two: The Scare from the Hood
Life Clip Number Three: Beer and Deer
Life Clip Number Four: A Cousin with a Check
Life Clip Number Five: The Valiant Rolls

You may also enjoy reading about my days working in gas stations in my "Gas Station Daze" series.
Gas Station Daze: Part 1: Hot Young Women
Gas Station Daze: Part 2: Robbed
Gas Station Daze: Part 3: Read the Sign, Hey?
Gas Station Daze: Part 4: Flat Tire!
Gas Station Daze: Part 5: He'll Never Do that Here, Again