My Run-Away Time

It was beginning to get on my nerves; all the hollering and groaning. So, one day I said, “Alice, I’m going for a walk. I’ll probably be back in an hour,” and out the door I went with just my jacket on. I didn’t know where I was going but I had to get away. All this constant noise was making me so upset, that I just had to get away for awhile.

I headed down the sidewalk to where the town ended and I just kept on walking. I didn’t know where I was going but it was far away. Somewhere that I wouldn’t be bothered for awhile, anyway.

It felt good to be out walking and pretty soon I found myself in TylorVille. Wow! I thought, TylorVille is five miles from our place and I went in the café and ordered lunch. I ate my lunch slowly, thinking about what I should do, when suddenly I thought, ‘Gosh. I might just as well keep on walking. This feels so good.’

So I got up and was paying for my lunch when a guy came in and hollered, “Anyone here going to Albaine?”

Just that quick I said, “Yes, sir, I am,” and we went out and got into a bus. I paid him my fare and settled down in an empty seat. There were only five other people on board and they sat in different seats, so I knew I was alright. I was getting away, finally, and I fell asleep.

I awoke with a start as the man said, “Here you are, Mister. This is Solaway.”

I looked at him sort of surprised and said, “But I thought we were headed for Albaine, on a bus.”

He looked at me sort of funny and said, “Albaine. Where the heck is Albaine?”

I sort of laughed because everyone knew where Albaine was, so I said, “You know, Albaine, North Carolina.”

He looked at me like he thought I was crazy and said, “Well, Mister, we are very far from North Carolina. This is Solaway, Texas. This is where you said you wanted to go and we are here now. I hope you have a nice visit with your sister. Goodbye.”

As I got out of the car, I noticed he looked sort of yellow, so I said, “Thanks for the lift,” and I hurried away. When I looked back, the car was gone, I mean just, gone, like it hadn’t even been there. I quickly walked into a café and sat down at the counter. When the waitress came over and asked me what I wanted, I looked at her as if she were Alice in-the-looking glass and quickly ran out the door and down the road. When I stopped running, I looked back at Solaway, and would you believe it, it was gone, disappeared, like it had never been there. I started running again and pretty soon I seen lights in the distance. I thought, “Now I’ll be safe. There is a town up ahead,” and I hurried to get there. The wind was blowing and I was walking with my head down, but when I looked up, there was no town anywhere to be seen. I stopped in my tracks and couldn’t believe my eyes. I rubbed them and looked again, in all directions, and there was no town with lights on, anywhere. I thought, ‘Wow! You’re going wacky, Mister. Just keep walking.’ I walked for a long time and suddenly I felt real sleepy again, so I headed off the road and sat down under a tree. I was asleep before you could say, ‘Wow!’

I awoke with a start and seen a man standing by me. As I looked up at him, I noticed he was waving a big stick over his head and yelling something strange. I jumped up and started running again, I kept looking back and finally one time, he wasn’t standing there anymore. I slowed down to a walk and noticed how dry I felt. I looked around for someplace there might be water, but there was nothing, so I kept walking. After got over the next hill, I was so surprised to see a beautiful lake. I started running towards it and it seemed to be getting smaller as I got nearer the place where it should have been. I stopped right in my tracks and started wondering, ‘What was going on.’

Well, I got back on the road and started walking again, hoping I’d fine somebody soon. I was real thirsty and I was becoming very hungry, so I started running again. I must have run for what seemed like miles, when there was a town before me. I thought, “Well, I’ll just ignore it this time and maybe it’ll go away.’

I just kept walking and suddenly I was in the middle of town right before a café. I looked at it in surprise and wondered if I should go in. Well, it didn’t take me long to make up my mind and as I sat down by the counter; a smiling waitress came over and asked me what I wanted. I said, “Are you for real?”

She laughed and said, “Yes, I’m for real. What would you like to eat?”

I looked at her so longingly and finally blurted out, “I’ll have two over-easy eggs, some bacon, ham and toast, and can you please keep my coffee cup filled up? Oh yes, can you please tell me what town I’m in?”

She said, “There is your coffee and you are in Save-a-town, North Carolina.”

I looked at her as if one of us was crazy and I yelled, “But how can I be, I was just in Texas awhile ago?”

She looked at me, then handed me a menu and pointed to the address as she gave the cook my order. There in point-blank, black and white, it said, Savers Café, Save-a-town, North Carolina. My breakfast came and believe me I wolfed it down, I was so hungry and as I wiped my mouth with a napkin, the waitress said, “Do you want more coffee or anything?”

I patted my stomach and said, “No thanks. I’m very full. That was just great but if the cook will make me up a ham sandwich, I’ll be on my way.”

She called out, “Make up a ham,” and she walked away to wait on someone else. Boy, I sure felt contented now and I sat there sipping my coffee. It wasn’t long before the waitress brought my wrapped ham sandwich and I paid for everything and said, “Have a nice day,” and I left.

I strolled through the town and looked in the windows and thought I should buy myself a new pair of pants, so I entered the store and just as soon as I did, I fell down and was sleeping within minutes.

I heard someone say, “He’s coming around. I wonder what happened to him?”

I opened my eyes and there was a doctor, a nurse and my wife standing there. I looked at each of them and wondered what they were doing in Save-a-town. Suddenly my wife started to cry and said, “Oh Pete. We didn’t know if you’d make it or not. What happened to you?”

“Now, now. Let the poor man get his barrings. How are you, Mr. Drake?” the doctor asked.

I looked at him and said, “How id you ever find me?”

The doctor looked at me and said, “You were lying by the road and the Em’s brought you in. Do you know what happened?”

“No I don’t, except I was almost hit over the head. I was in the car with a strange man and so many other things were wrong. I was even in Save-a-town in North Carolina. What’s going on?” I asked.

The doctor said, “Well, there’s no problem that I can see right now. We’ll keep you overnight and see what happens.”

The doctor then said, “I’ll be back by eight p.m. We should know what went wrong by then.”

After the doctor and nurse left, my wife wiped her eyes and said, “Could I really kiss you now? I’ve been waiting for three hours.”

I gave a funny little laugh and said, “Come here, Babe,” and we kissed for a long time, finally I asked her, “What happened to me, Alice?”

“Oh Pete, when you weren’t home by nine o’clock, I became worried and started calling the hospitals. Finally this one told me you were here and it looked bad,” Alice said. “Oh Pete, what happened?”

“I really don’t know, except that I was running away from home and I was in TylorVille and got on a bus,” I said. “I really don’t know where I was going except by my sister.”

“Well, Pete, I don’t think you even made it to TylorVille, because the Em’s found you about two blocks from our house,” Alice said.

We sat quietly for awhile and then I said, “Alice, how are the kids doing?”

She laughed and said, “Boy, you should have seen them when I got ready to leave home. They were crying and carrying on like I had beaten them. I told them to lock the doors and not open them to anyone but us. They are worried about you.”

I laughed a little and said, “Maybe things will be different now when I get home. Oh Alice, I was really scared.”

There was a slight knock at the door and it opened and the doctor came in and asked, “Well, Mr. Drake, how do you feel now?”

“I’m pretty good now, I guess. My head hurts but I guess that’s from something that happened.” I said.

“Well,” the doctor said, “I think we’ll keep you in the hospital until tomorrow morning. We’ll see how you are doing then,” and he turned to leave.

“Say, Doc,” I said. “Why did I go to such places and get so scared?”

“I don’t really know but the Em’s found a tree branch that had broken off and thought that might have caused it,” the doctor said. Then he looked at my wife and said, “I believe you should go home now, Mrs. Drake. Your husband needs his sleep.”

“Okay,” my wife said. “I’ll be back in the morning with the kids.”

“Well, if you get here by 10:30 or 11:00 o’clock, that will be fine,” the doctor said. “We should have ex rays taken by then.’

“Alright,” Alice said as the doctor left the room. “You have a good nights sleep, uninterrupted by goofy things. Good night, Pete,” and she kissed him.

He held on to her for a little while, then said, “It’ll be good to see the kids again. Drive safely.”

She looked at him funny but left the room and hurried home.

He rolled over onto his side and fell asleep. He didn’t wake up until the nurse came in at seven a.m. to take him down to the ex ray department. Then, back up in his room, he ate breakfast and went right back to sleep. He was sleeping soundly when his wife and kids came in. Alice bent over him to kiss him and she seen his eyes were open. “Well, how are you this fine day?” she asked.

He didn’t answer her and just kept staring. She buzzed for the nurse to come and when she did, Alice and the kids were sent outside for awhile. The nurse called the doctor and when he came he asked Alice if he had ever done this before. She said, “No doctor. What can be the matter with him?”

He said he didn’t know but it acted like a brain tumor but he’d have to check it out real quick, and they wheeled him down to ex ray.

He was in ex ray and then went to the emergency room where they got him ready for surgery. The doctor came in after washing up and looked at the chart. He said, “Well, it looks like we got this one just in time. Roll him on his side,” and he quickly gave him a shot to put him to sleep. Then he said, “Give me a scalpel and ……”

After three hours, everything was done and the doctor told the nurse in the recovery room to keep a close eye on his wound. Mr. Drake might try to tear the bandage off, and that he would be down in the ex ray room where he wanted to look at what they had removed.

The doctor had been gone for half an hour when the nurse rang him and said Mr. Drake was coming around. The doctor hurried upstairs just as Mr. Drake opened his eyes and said, “Oh, my head hurts. What did you do to me?”

The doctor said, “Just take it easy for awhile, Mr. Drake. We had to operate to remove a small growth on the left side. Just lay still and I’ll see what’s what.”

After being examined, the doctor said, “Well, everything looks just great. A few days rest and then you can go home. Now you can see your wife. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Mrs. Drake came in and was so happy to see her husband awake, that she started to cry. Her husband said, “Oh, come on now. Is that all you can do? How about giving me a kiss?”

Mrs. Drake dried her tears and said, “You can bet your life on it. Oh, I was so worried,” and she kissed him tenderly, being careful not to disturb his head. She asked Pete what had happened and he told her everything he could remember. Parts of it were to scary and Alice just looked at him in wonderment. She didn’t know what to think and finally he said, “Well, Babe, I’m tired. I think I’ll go to sleep for awhile, okay?”

Alice said, “Okay, dear. I’ll go out by the kids for awhile and then come back in here and sit with you. Oh Pete, I love you and hope you’ll be alright.”

Pete gave a little laugh and said, “Yes, I’m alright now that the doctor got that thing out of my head. I’ll be real happy going home with you all soon. I love you.”