We're Not Crazy

Basking in Success

"Jo, look!" I was glancing out of the window and watching everything we drove past.
"The cows?" he questioned.
"I haven't seen a cow in person, they're so cute." I stated.
"I guess.." he said nonchalantly.

"Shouldn't you be a little more excited? You haven't seen them in a while."  I questioned.

"They're just cows, princess." he laughed. I rolled my eyes and continued looking out of the window.

"So, what is it that you two do?" the man behind the wheel asked. He put his hand on my thigh for some reason.
"Um..."
"Oh sorry." he chuckled and removed it.
"I do nothing." I answered. "I haven't done anything ever."
"By 'haven't done anything'...what do you mean?" he asked me.
I was confused. I thought we were talking about jobs. What else could I mean?

"Hey, man, what's in this suitcase? You comin' back from a trip or somethin'?" Josiah asked as he began unzipping it.
"I had a business trip and just got back today." the man answered.
"Ah, I see. So uhhh...seein' as you're our driver and all, what's your name?" Jo asked as he began digging through the suitcase.
"You can call me Jerry." he insisted.
"Well, Jerry..." In the blink of an eye Josiah threw a belt around Jerry's neck and pulled it tight while we were still on the road.

"How about we keep our hands to ourselves, huh, Jerry?" Jerry slapped at the belt to try and get it free from his neck and I had to take the wheel to make sure we didn't die in the process.

"Jerry, I will happily let this car crash and kill us all inside of it, just as long as I'm the reason you're dead. I'm only gonna say this shit one time, keep both of your hands on the wheel and keep both of your eyes on the road." Jo finally let the man free, and Jerry's face was a special type of pale. I gave the wheel back to Jerry and watched as his eyes bounced back and forth from Jo to the road even though Jo was no longer paying him any mind.

____________________________________

We finally pulled up to a little building with a sign that read 'Red Motel' and had few cars in the parking lot. We got out of our car and Jo tipped Jerry two dollars and a smile.

He has a pretty smile.

After that we walked into the front office and Jo handled everything while I stood back and watched.

"Okay, ready?" he asked as he came back to me with keys in his hand. I nodded eagerly and he escorted us out of the little office.

When he unlocked a different door he held it open for me and I saw it had two beds inside and a tv. I ran and threw our things to the side then jumped onto the bed I claimed as mine. He saw me and a gentle chuckle sounded from his throat.

"Josi."

"You know I hate when you call me that."

"I don't understand why. It's cute. But that's not the point." I sat up and looked at him. "We're free."

"Yea, princess, we're free." he smiled.

"Do you know how long we've been planning this?" I asked as I got out of the bed and walked towards him. He snickered like I was amusing to him. "And we finally did it..." I hugged him tightly, he'd been trying even longer than I had.

When I first met Josiah it was while he was on an escape mission. I'm kind of at fault for why he didn't succeed. All I saw was a body dangling out of one of the windows and I thought he was attempting to end it all. I called for help and got him out and received a sarcastic, "Yea, thanks a lot" in return. Ever since then I started gently bothering him to accept my apology, and we ended up as friends. I've learned about him and he's learned about me, and we'd been working to escape for two years.

You'd think by the third time they'd try chaining us to our beds.

I felt his arms wrap around me too.
"Yea, kid. I'm proud of us." he stated. 'Kid' another nickname he'd given me even though he's only 3 years older than I am.

"Um, What's the plan?" I looked up at him and asked with my chin against his chest.
"We could get jobs..."
...
...
"What?" I asked, disgusted at the idea.
He chuckled again. "I'm kidding. I'd probably get arrested again on the first day."

The reasons Josiah was in the ward were for anger management, panic disorder (which has actually gotten better), ptsd, and alexithymia which was basically what they titled him being unable to cry or feel bad after hurting someone, they said he had a 'lack of empathy'.

"How about we just worry about right now? We eat, turn on the tv to whatever they show nowadays, and bask in the fact that we actually succeeded in the one thing we've worked for in our entire lives." he offered.
I smiled at the idea.
"Because if I'm bein' honest, I'm starvin'." he said.

We let each other go and he went for the tv remote while I set out all of our food on the desk by the wall.

"You grabbed a lot more than I thought you would." he said as he saw the layout.
"I didn't know what specifically you wanted so I grabbed what looked good and stuff that seemed like it was something you'd eat." I replied.
"Well, ain't that sweet'a you." he claimed and went back to flipping through channels.

We agreed on something to watch and sat on our beds. He ate and I decided not to.

"I thought we fixed that problem." he stated and I was unaware of what he meant.

"What problem?" I asked.

"The problem'a you not eatin'."

"I'm just not hungry..."

"Come here."

I was skeptical to follow directions but I did anyway.
He pat the bed next to him and I sat down. He turned his bag of chips towards me and offered some.

"Josi, I'm okay." I stated again.
"Just one." he reached his hand in the bag and handed me a chip. "Go on." he demanded. "You'll like it, it's good."
I took the chip out of his hand and took a bite of it.
"It's good isn't it?" he asked with a smile and I nodded. "Here," he said and handed me another one.