A Steemit Original - A Lifetime of Seeking Happiness - Chapter 1 - Part 4

 Memoir of a runaway girl - A true story!  

 I had my own room, but it was locked from the outside each night at 8pm sharp. There were bars on the windows too.  A tall, locked fence surrounded the entire perimeter of the school compound. During my time there, I made many attempts at escaping but could not seem to break free of the nuns in the hallway. I truly believe that jail has more freedoms then I did in that place.  At least in jail you get TV time, can read books and magazines, and even get an hour in the yard. 

The school was basically, eat, clean, school, homework, and sleep.  There were no fun activities or socializing. You were escorted everywhere by a nun at all times.  One day in the summer, I asked the nuns if I could go outside to get some sun. The sister agreed with the stipulation that I remain by her window so she could keep an eye on me at all times. I put on my bathing suit, but I secretly rolled my jeans, shirt, and shoes into my beach towel, and headed outside.    

As I sat in the sun, I continued to watch that nun’s window like a hawk. I kept waiting for that one moment I could run to another part of the yard, change my clothes and get over the tall black fence. My moment came when I saw her leave her office. I immediately ran for the bushes, threw on my clothes, and sprinted for the fence.    

I was only 5’1” tall and the fence was ten feet high! What was worse is that I soon discovered that they had covered the fence with grease, obviously to thwart escape plans. I was also wearing white jeans. This was getting worse by the second.  

Determined, I did get over that fence, even though I looked like I just had a fight in a tar pit. I ran, ran so fast and so far, fearing they were on my tail at any given second. Finally, I made it out of the area. I eventually ended up at my friend’s house, who gave me a change of clothes. Exhausted, I then I headed to the park by the river, the one place I thought no one would think to look for me.   

I talked with a few of my friends that happened to be there, and then I got the idea to hitchhike to stay with a friend of mine across town. 

I had my thumb up for only a few minutes, and guess who happened to be driving by? My MOTHER!  

She immediately ordered me to get into the car.  On the way home, she told me that I would have to find somewhere else to stay because if my father saw me at home, he would kill me.  At the very minimum, it would result in a severe beating, and I probably would be sent back to the nuns.  She suggested I find a friend to stay with, and that is exactly what I did.  

The taste of not being under my parents rules started feeling good to me. Even though staying at a friend’s house had its perks, I was still stuck in Lethbridge. Actually to be more specific, I was hiding in Lethbridge. 

I wanted a new start, a new city, and my Aunt had previously given me an open invitation to stay with her any time I wanted. 

A year later when I was 14 years old, I was ready to make the trek, and left to go live with my Aunt in Edmonton.    

I took my things and hitchhiked six hours on the highway to get there. Made the trip in one piece but only to find out she was on vacation when I arrived. I was lost on what to do next.  Nearby there was a huge park that had benches.  I decided I would just hang out there temporarily until I could figure out my situation.  When I say I hung out in the park, I actually slept the first night in the park on a bench.  

During the day, I’d walk around getting acquainted with the area, and at night, the park bench was where I returned to sleep.  There were other homeless people around, and luckily, no one claimed that bench.  

After a couple of days, I met a stranger who told me about a girl’s hostile that was nearby. So off I went, dirty and hungry and not knowing this new big city.  Hostiles are supposed to be a place for girls who have been kicked out of their homes, or have had issues with their families. Surely, this would turn out to be great for me! 

I knocked on the door and was greeted by a very nice woman; I will refer to her as Sue. She invited me in, showed me around and brought me upstairs where there were many rooms.    

She showed me to a door and pointed to a bed that was under a window, this was to be my new bed and home. I took notice of three other empty beds, and no one was in the room at that time. I was excited since this meant I had my own room. My wishful thinking soon turned into my worse nightmare. In came two girls, who by all imagination, you would have thought could have killed someone. These two girls were very masculine, wearing baseball caps, jeans and t-shirts. To say I was intimidated and scared of them was an understatement.     

I sat on my bed, and began to unpack my suitcase when one of them came over and told me I could not have that bed. I explained “Sue told me that this bed was available and for me to take it, if you have a problem with it, talk to her”.  Ok, maybe that was the wrong thing to say, as the look on her face was basically saying, “You’re going to get beat girl!”  

A bell rang, which meant dinner was ready and I headed down with one of the girls from another room. We got our plates of food, sat down and proceeded to eat and talk about how we wound up at the hostile.    

Well, the girl who clearly did not like me earlier came up behind me and elbowed me in the back of my head. I got up from the table and did it back to her, which in hindsight was a terrible idea. Sue came in and separated us and she said she was moving me to a different room. Which was fine with me, but the problem now was that after I left the room to go downstairs, the two girls were busy going through my things and stealing what ever they could.  So now, I am in a new room, with only one pair of jeans, three tops and some socks and a bit of underwear left.  This was not going too well at all.  About a week went by, before I was called into the office and was told, either I go back to school or find a job, because I had to do something instead of just hanging around the hostile all day. There were rules, one of them being that between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm you could not be in the house. 

Part 5 continues tomorrow.

If you missed Part 1 here is the link.

https://steemit.com/writing/@feline1991/a-steemit-original-a-lifetime-of-seeking-happiness-part-1