Nowhere to Run
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 12:12AM 
“I don’t want you to go, Romulus.” Alicia whispered. Her face pressed against my chest, holding me around my waist as I reached for my glasses on the night stand. “I’ll be back Monday.” I told her as she constricts tighter around my waist.
“I miss you already,” She whispers. Her hand gliding gently down my stomach to my thigh. “Do you have to go so early tomorrow?” She said as she slowly moved her thigh across my thighs. “It’s nearly a 12-hour drive from Birmingham to Palm Beach,” I told her as I put on my glasses to prepare for the movie on DVD she borrowed from her sister.
Into the Wild. Never heard of the movie or the actors playing in it. The lead character, Alexander Supertramp, graduates from Emory University, gives away his $24,000 life savings to charity, abandons his car and hikes across country from Virginia to Alaska to get closer to nature. Some have said Alexander, who’s real name was Christopher McCandless, was an ill-prepared misfit that died in an abandoned bus in the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness due to arrogance and lack of common sense. He should have known long before he left Virginia that there’s nowhere to run.
I haven’t seen my sister, Jemise, in over 5 years. She was last seen in Maryland by my oldest sister and my mom. 3 years ago we tried to offer her new clothes, toiletries, money, and medical attention. She refused the medical attention and took everything else. From time to time we receive mail from law enforcement agencies in Arizona, New Mexico, Kentucky, Indiana and Los Angeles but they are limited as to how they can actually go about detaining her. She sporadically calls mom either from a pay as you go cellphone or from someone’s home phone with a calling card. Perhaps my mom neglected her own health worrying over her disappearance. Chris only lasted 2 years on the road. Jemise has been tramping for five years, same circumstances, and still going.
There was a time when I was just a silly little hyper-active boy that wouldn’t amount to much. Now I’m the pilar—pursuing a doctorate degree, maintaining my fragmented family and helping my mom live to see another day. Even though this trip to Palm Beach is to claim some remaining items I have in storage at a friend’s house, I need to run. I need to get away just for a couple of days. Mom is peacefully recovering from a subdural hematoma, which the doctors are treating as another stroke. This is the third time I’ve saved her from the brink of death— and each episode robs her of more personality and intellect. This time the neurologist’s prognosis was that she would never speak again. After two weeks in an intensive care unit and a week at an extended stay hospital, mom opened her eyes wide when I came in to see her and said: “Come here, let me kiss my baby boy.”
Reader Comments (2)
I can see why you want to get away for a while. Life can hit hard sometimes. I hope you got a chance to clear your thoughts and reflect on the good things in life. Sounds like you and your mother are very strong and determined people. As for your sister, she is missing out on a great family. She will eventually come home when the time is right.
Yay Moms!