Marionette

Chapter 9: Running

It was the night of a new moon and the city was too far for the streetlights to reflect their orange glow off the clouds. The farm was too dark to see and Posy had to use a flashlight to be sure she didn't accidentally step on a rattlesnake in the long grass. She wasn't following the road because the shortest walking route to the nearest town was to go through the fields across the street. It belonged to two old men, Erickson and Jones, and in the past they would yell at her or Jamie whenever they caught them on their property. Posy hoped they wouldn't be awake at one in the morning.

She was lucky to get out of the house without getting caught. She had no idea how she'd explain it to her family. As she hiked through the canola fields, she imagined how that conversation would have gone.

"Hi Mom, hi Dad, I'm just running away from an evil omniscient girl so she doesn't write me a happy ending with one of the neighbour boys we had dinner with yesterday." "Oh, Jaime, sorry you caught me attempting to escape from a perfect life in an attempt to seem more interesting to an all-powerful being who I hate but am also trying to please in order to keep existing because she actually created me and has control over my every thought."

Yeah. Probably for the best they'd stayed asleep.

It took longer to get through the fields than it would have during the day. When Posy got to Erickson and Jones' farm, she immediately stepped in horse manure and had to get past the curious horse who'd made it before she reached the dirt path. She followed it a while until it was crossed by a paved road, then she turned and followed that one to town.

She was not used to hiking the prairies in the wee hours. By now it had been close to two hours and her steps had slowed. Although it was early summer, the night had cooled to its coldest point and Posy rubbed her fingers to make sure they could still feel. Her nose had started running enough that she was sniffling and her feet dragged. Still she kept walking, partly because her heart was set on escaping me and partly because I said she had to. She couldn't help but think of her cozy room and the warm bed with too many pillows and twinkling fairy lights. The road seemed to go on forever, and she was trying to stifle her eleventh yawn when she finally saw the distant twinkle of the streetlights in town.

A line on the page later, after however much time had passed, Posy reached the bus station in town. It was closed, of course, but there was a bus schedule on the bulletin board. The first bus out of town was due in two hours. Posy took off her backpack and used it as a pillow to catch a few winks before the grey sky got its colour back.

Posy woke to the hiss of a bus. She would have liked to go straight back to sleep again, but the cold wouldn't let her, and she slowly became more aware of her surroundings against her will. When she did, she sat straight up and looked around.

The early bus had arrived and the station had opened some time before that. Posy checked her phone. 5:15am. According to the board, the bus would leave at 5:25. She picked her backpack up from off the bench she'd napped on and checked that everything she'd packed was still inside. She pulled up her bus ticket on her phone to show the driver, and boarded.

Posy picked a seat near the very back and sat next to the window. Hugging her backpack, she leaned against the cool glass, dreaming of big cities and adventure. She barely thought about me at all before drifting off to sleep again. I'm almost insulted. But I'll get my revenge.