A Steemit Original - A Lifetime of Seeking Happiness - Chapter 3 - Part 1

Memoir of a runaway girl - A true story!

A New Beginning

Remo’s plan was that I would finish work, go home and pack, and meet him at the pool hall the following afternoon. From there we would head out by taxi to the airport. We’d go to Florida, since my parents had a vacation home there. It was off season and my parents wouldn’t be going there until March.  Get married and live in Florida.

I thought it would be the perfect place to stay while we planned our wedding. I think we were both nervous on what we were about to embark upon. We were both young. I was only eighteen, and Remo was twenty-one.  

Once in Florida, we took a taxi to the island where my parent’s vacation home was located. This island was private, and it had security manned at the gates. I explained who I was, and when they wanted to call my parents to confirm my story which was putting me in a panic. So I mentioned the librarian in the recreation center who knew me. So they called her instead. The librarian confirmed who I was and they let us in.    

When we arrived, there was a strange car in the driveway. I left my bags with Remo on the walkway, and I approached the open front door. 

I yelled “hello?”  

An elderly woman came to the door. Surprised, I then asked her, “Who are you? This is my parents place”.  

She asked who my parents were and I named them. She smiled and invited us in. Apparently my parents were renting their place out until they got there. I never knew they even did that. But then again, my parents never discussed things like this with us. It was their business, and not ours.  By now, we were sitting on the couch and I was explaining that I wanted to stay until my parents came down in March. She clearly reminded me that she and her husband were renting it. Next thing I knew, she was on the phone in the kitchen with my parents!  

She spoke about me being there and with a guy. The phone was then handed to me. Dad was not happy whatsoever from the moment I said hello to him.  

Dad asked. “Abby, what the hell are you doing there?"

 He continued saying, "you have no right to be there and you are disrupting our tenants who pay us to be there. I want you to turn your ass around and get out of there right now.”  

I said, “I know Dad, but we have no where else to stay, so what do you suggest we do?”  

Dad replied, “You chose to take off, you made your bed, now you can lay in it. You are not my problem anymore. Now get out of there.”  

Wow, was all I could think. Here was my dad, telling me I was not his problem and seemingly not caring one iota about what happened to me. Well, that was that!  I came back to sit with Remo and told him that we could not stay here. He looked at me like I was nuts, he knew, just as I did, we had no where else to go.  I thanked the lady for her hospitality and apologized for disrupting her vacation.    

She asked us if we needed to stay a night, After about thirty seconds of consideration, I said no, I felt it was too weird and my dad made it very clear that we had to leave. She offered us a ride into town, but we declined. I asked if she could call us a taxi.  It was surreal how this stranger had more compassion for my welfare than my own father.

We waited for about twenty minutes and finally the taxi showed up. The driver was a woman in her twenties. She looked at me and said I looked familiar. I told her my name, and where I was from, and she excitedly told me she knew who I was. She knew my parents from her previous work in town. Talk about a small world.    

As we drove back to town, Remo asked if she knew any cheap hotels and she did. She dropped us off at the office of a motel, and handed me a piece of paper with her name, phone number and address on it.    

Rachel said, “If you need anything or just want to hang out, give us a call. Take care and hope things work out for you while you’re here”.  

The motel was an old one, but seemed to be clean, but the important part was that is was cheap. Only $34 per night and they offered a weekly rate which was great for us.    

So we settled into our room and unpacked, sat on the bed looking at each other. What seemed to be forever in silence was only a mere five minutes. Here we were, wondering what to do next. Naturally he would want to go out and take a look around since he had never been to Florida before, so that was what we did.    

Corn fritters, such a simple thing that delighted him so much. As we were walking along, munching on the fritters, we were jostling with each other and I guess I pushed a little too hard, he landed right into his first cactus, needles stuck all over his legs.

Chapter 3 - Part 2 continues tomorrow

  For those who missed the beginning, you can read it here: https://steemit.com/writing/@feline1991/a-steemit-original-a-lifetime-of-seeking-happiness-part-1