Going south

Going South

My name is Billy and I have lived all my life in the state of Michigan. I believed that my life was pretty normal, but in reality it wasn’t. My mother had me when she was twenty years old. My father did not care for the idea of a child and left my mother to make out for herself. I never knew him or ever met him, in fact I did not even know his first name.

My mother would not consider abortion or giving me up for adoption. Instead she opted to take on the situation of a single mother. Lucky she had a few friends to help baby sit me in my younger years. Mother is a strong willed woman and she was determined to make a life for us. She worked two jobs to make enough money. Mother made sure I never lacked for what I needed and that I knew I was loved.

After I graduated high school I got a job at a local factory and my income and hers made out lives a lot easier. I was twenty four when mother told me she had breast cancer. She went for surgery and then treatments but they did not get it all and she died a year after the surgery. It was really hard to lose the only person who loved and cared for me.

I continued to work at the plant. One day fortune turned on me and I found out I had a winning lottery ticket. The ticket was a mega millions and I won over 140 million. I decided to take an annuity of five and a half million a year for 26 years. I quit my job as I did not need the money and decided to travel. I purchased a new car and headed south with no destination in mind. Michigan winters can be snowy and cold and I did not want to be looking out a window for six months.

The next change in my life happened on the second day of my trip south. I had spent the night in the city of Louisville Kentucky and in the morning continued south a few miles to Hillview to stop for breakfast. I was about to go into the café when I noticed a girl huddled against the wall of the café. She did not seem to be dressed warm enough for the chill in the air, even though there was no snow on the ground it was pretty cool. She seemed to be crying as she wiped at her eyes.

Normally I don’t get involved in other peoples problems but something seemed to pull me over to her. I asked if she was alright and if there was anything I could do. She said she was ok but it didn’t look that way. I said “you look cold and maybe you would accompany me inside the café to warm up and I will buy you a cup of coffee.” At first I thought she would refuse but then she just nodded and followed me inside.

When the waitress came I ordered two breakfast specials and two cup of coffee. She smiled at me and I just said “you look hungry.” She did not look more than sixteen years old.

I said “did you have a fight with someone.” She said “yes I had a disagreement with my boyfriend.” “He will probably be back saying he is sorry before you finish your breakfast” was my reply.

She told me “my boyfriend and I had run off from my parents but he got scared and decided to go back. He just left me here when I said I wasn’t going back.” I asked her name. She said “my name is Sueanne but everyone calls me just Sue.”

I asked her “are you running away with a boyfriend or running away from her parents.” It seems to me she was running away from your parents. She kept her eyes on her coffee cup and said “yes, I am running away from my parents.” She said “my mother is always drunk and when my father gets drunk he will beat on my mother and sometimes on me.” She remarked “my life at home is very bad sometimes I think dad will kill my mother or maybe even me, and that’s why I ran away.“

When our food came we ate in silence.