completely exhausted and asked myself before I fall asleep from fatigue:
How shall I continue from here? Where do I go from here?
Officially I am disappeared and soon I will be dead and I have nowhere to go anymore. I don’t have any documents, nor I could use my identification anymore and I don’t have any money at all.
Oh my God what will I do?
I fall asleep with so many questions in my head and no answers.
Hours after when I woke up, I was freezing and my dress was still a little bit wet, opening my eyes for the very first seconds I didn’t know where I was and while I was trying to wake up, I thought I had the biggest nightmare in my life.
But it took only a few minutes to realize I didn’t know where I was and that I was living my nightmare.
Ohhh I had no idea the hell I was in….my nightmare hadn’t even started.
With a few hours rested, although I didn’t sleep in the most comfortable place, I was able to walk again into the unknown.
I was alone, and didn’t know the place I was and at this point I didn’t really care. I walked for a minutes and I found a road, I still didn’t know where I was but I didn’t care. I didn’t lose time and started walking along the road, after some time my bear feet started hurting.
Almost two hours had gone, cars and trucks passed by me. One truck driver slowed down and asked me where I was going and if I needed a lift.
At first I was so embarrassed I didn’t talked to the man, but then I remembered he could help me get away quicker from that place, as I needed to be as far as possible from my family.
“I… I just need to go far away from here”
“That’s where I am going…far away”
The man replied from the inside of the truck.
“Do you need a lift?”
The man insisted.
Giving a few seconds to my brain and decide what to do, I said:
“Yes please, take me out of here, as far as possible”
“Done” He said.
The truck driver hit of the road, he started asking questions, which I avoided at all cost forcing me to make up a convincing story to put out of his curiosity.
“Well, if you insist on knowing, I ran away from home because of my husband, he tried to kill me. That’s why I need to run as far as possible”
It was half of the truth anyway.
“I am sorry to hear that”
The man sound genuinely sorry for me. Noticing I was freezing and was still in this humid unrecognizable clothe which had been an expensive night gown the night before, but now was just a rag. And he said:
“I think I still have some clothes in a small bag from my ex-wife, she left somewhere back here, you can grab and use it if you want” Pointing to his back where he had things laying around.
I looked to the back of his seat and saw a complete mess, before I could say anything, and I wondered if I wanted to wear someone’s clothes, everything looked so filthy inside the cabin. But now I didn’t had a thing and I was freezing and changing clothes was all I needed right now.
After a couple of minutes trying to convince my brain looking for that bag, my body reacted and I started looking for the bag on my knees. When I was searching for it, I noticed the driver’s looking at me obliquely, making me feel uncomfortable and for the first time I realize it was a mistake to take a lift with a stranger.
I was definitely putting my life at risk.
As soon I found what I was looking for, I got back to my seat, opening the bag to look what was inside, and there was a dress, cotton coat and a pair of flats. It was everything I needed right now to get dry and comfortable.
“Are you sure it’s okay if you give me all these clothes?”
I needed to certify myself of it.
“Please keep everything. You can change here if you want.”
“Thanks, but I will wait for the next gas station and I’ll change there.”
We keep in silence most of the trip and a couple hours later he stops in a gas station. Without giving him any type of chance I went off the truck and thanked him
Melissa de la Cruz, Michael Johnston