Runaways (15 page)

She sat back with a laugh.

Despite Crystal's reluctance to let Sunshine continue on with us, we couldn't help but be interested and intrigued with our new acquaintance. She described her travels, the places she had been in America, hitchhiking, developing relationships with men who took her along on their own journeys and then either deserted her or did something to cause her to want to desert them.

“I was nearly murdered in Texas,” she said. None of us even breathed for fear of interrupting her. “I met this trucker at a rest stop . . . best places to pick up rides,” she inserted. “Even the ones who have
No Riders Permitted
stickers on their windows take you along if you ask them nicely, know what I mean?”

“No,” Crystal said with her eyes narrow and her lips tight. “What do you mean?”

“Well, Pollyanna, it's like this,” she said infuriating Crystal more.

“My name is
not
Pollyanna.”

“Whatever. You show them some skin, flirt, fill their mind with fantasies,” she explained.

“Then what happens?” I asked.

“Depends. If you really like the guy, you pay up. If not, there are ways to worm your way out. Only this time in Texas, Roy was not taking no for an answer. He put a knife this long to my throat,” she said, holding her hands apart. Raven gasped.

“What happened?” Butterfly asked. Sunshine glanced at her.

“You really want to know?”

“No,” Crystal answered for her.

“I didn't think you did, Pollyanna.”

“I want to know,” Raven said. “We should hear this and learn,” she added.

“Why? Do you plan on asking for rides at truck stops?” Crystal shot back at her.

“You never know,” Raven said.

“That's the way to think,” Sunshine said, grinning at Raven.

“There wasn't anything I could do but let him have his way, or start to,” she said. “You get to know when men are at their . . . let's say weakest moment. I waited for my chance, kneed him where it hurts right down to his birthday and got away. I lost some of my stuff. That's why I only have that bag, but I wasn't about to go back and ask him for my things,” she said.

No one spoke for a moment, all of us lost in our own imaginings, each of us seeing the terrifying moments from our own prospective.

“Why do you do this?” Crystal finally asked.

“Do what?”

“Hitchhike everywhere, pick up rides from strangers, go off with strange men, live like this?” she elaborated, raising her voice a few octaves.

“I'm not exactly enrolled in some private school back east,” Sunshine replied. “I'm on my own.”

“So just get a job, learn something, get a life like
everyone else,” Crystal continued. “A lot of people are on their own but don't end up nearly raped and murdered in some truck cab.”

Sunshine stared at her and then blew some air through her lips.

“Everyone in this country thinks she knows what's good for everyone else. When you're on your own for a while, come see me. I'll make some time in my busy schedule,” she added.

“We've been on our own all our lives,” Crystal said, “mostly.”

“Is that right?” Sunshine looked at her and then at the rest of us. The skepticism was replaced with new interest. “What do you mean? Who are you?”

“We're real orphans,” Crystal said. “We come from a foster home. Ever hear of them?”

“You're kidding? Really?” she said, smiling as if our stock went up tenfold in her eyes.

“How come you never ended up in one?” Raven asked.

“I almost did once. I was picked up for vagrancy in some small town in Oklahoma and the police were going to turn me over to the state, but I managed to fake my way out. I had this friend in Phoenix who pretended to be my aunt and wired the money for my bus ticket. The police bought it. I actually left on a bus and got off the first stop. They weren't really interested in me. They just wanted to get me out of their hair. As I said, Pollyanna, you've got to learn how to live on the road.”

“Stop calling me Pollyanna,” Crystal snapped.

“Sensitive, isn't she? First rule on the road is not to be sensitive. You've got to get a shell like those turtles you see crawling along. I turned one upside down once just outside of El Paso.”

“Wow, you really have been everywhere,” Raven
said with awe. She'd never been west of New York State.

“Not New York,” she said. “I've stayed away from New York City. You can get eaten alive there.”

“We were just there,” Butterfly bragged. “It's beautiful.”

“Really? How long were you there?”

“Only for a few minutes,” I explained. “I made a wrong turn and ended up on Broadway.”

“A lot of people are trying to end up on Broadway,” Sunshine said with a laugh. She nudged Raven and Raven laughed with her. “I like you guys. You have any money?”

“Our savings. We got paid for work around the foster home and summer jobs,” I explained.

“How much do you have?”

“Almost fifteen hundred,” I said.

“Fourteen hundred and twenty now,” Crystal reminded me.

“She's right. She's the banker,” I agreed.

“Oh.” She glanced at Crystal again. “Well, it looks like your money's in safe hands. I don't think Pollyanna is the type who wastes a penny.”

“If you call me that one more time . . .”

Sunshine laughed.

“Please, don't tease her,” I begged.

“Okay.” She turned to Crystal. “I even like you . . . what's your name again . . .”

“Crystal. It's Crystal!”

“Well, that's like Pollyanna anyway, but okay, Crystal. I like you, too. Anyway, how did four orphans get a car like this? Not that it's any great-looking automobile or anything.”

No one said anything.

“Oh, I see. Crystal's not as lily white as she pretends to be, huh?”

“It wasn't very nice where we were,” I explained, “and we didn't see any future for any of us there.”

“It was called the Lakewood House and the owner's name is Gordon. He's a monster,” Butterfly said. Crystal poked her to stop her from saying too much more.

“Yeah, he's a delight to be with,” I said. “Anyway, we borrowed his vehicle to get away.”

“I've done that,” she said with a shrug.

“Done what?” Raven asked.

“Borrowed things. It's the way you survive on the road. There was this guy I knew in Vegas. That's a fun city, Vegas. Anyway, he borrowed a car, but he changed license plates on the way out of the city. Did you do that?”

“Change plates?” I shook my head.

“The police are looking for the license number. You switch plates with another car and you have a better chance. Most people don't even notice their plates have been switched.”

“That's a good idea,” Raven said.

“No,” Crystal said. “We're not doing anything else that could get us into any more trouble.”

“If the police catch you in this car, Pollyanna, you'll be in enough trouble anyway. Switching plates won't add much to it,” Sunshine said.

“I don't know, Sunshine,” Raven began.

“I'll help you,” Sunshine broke in. “It's easy.”

When my eyes shifted to the rearview mirror, I saw Crystal flash me a very worried look.

“We'll see,” I said. “Let's take it a day at a time.”

“Exactly,” Sunshine says. “That's what I do. See,” she said, turning to Crystal, “you're starting
to live like me already. We're all going to get along great. We'll be like . . . sisters, sisters on the road.”

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that also had gas pumps in front of it. Despite its size and where it was located, it did a brisk business and filled up soon after we arrived. Crystal wanted us to be thrifty and order carefully from the menu, but Sunshine kept interrupting, telling us to order this and that.

“It's one of the cheapest stops on the road,” she said. “Take advantage.”

“I'm hungry anyway,” Raven grumbled.

“We had a big breakfast,” Crystal reminded her.

“I'm still hungry. I want a shake, too. And Sunshine says the fries are good here.”

“I stopped here once before,” Sunshine explained. “Maybe twice.”

She ordered a double burger, fries, a shake and a scoop of chocolate ice cream for dessert.

“You pay the bill,” she told Crystal afterward, “and I'll straighten up with you later.”

Crystal gave me one of her looks, but I didn't want to make a scene at the table so I just nodded. Reluctantly, Crystal paid the bill. We left a tip and started out.

“I'll just be a minute,” Sunshine said and went in to the bathroom.

“Let's drive away and leave her in there,” Crystal said the moment we were back in the wagon. “We're never going to get the money for her lunch. She's only going to be trouble, Brooke.”

“We can't do that,” Raven said. “Her suitcase is in the car.”

“Leave it in the parking space,” Crystal suggested.

“Someone might steal it,” Butterfly said.

“Steal that? I doubt it. The road department might take it to prevent disease, but no one's going to steal it, Butterfly. Let's do it, Brooke.”

“I can't, Crystal, she's as bad off as we are. We'll take her along a little farther and then tell her we're going someplace else.”

“She won't care. She'll stay with us as long as she can,” Crystal warned. “You'll see.”

“Here she comes,” Raven said.

Sunshine walked quickly from the restaurant and got in.

“Drive on,” she ordered and we pulled away. As we did, she turned to hand Crystal some money.

“Here's for my lunch,” she said with a smirk.

Crystal took it, surprised, glancing at me before she rubbed the bills a moment as if she thought they might all be counterfeit. Then she looked up with more surprise, even shock.

“Where did you get this five-dollar bill?”

“What do you mean, where did I get it? I had it on me. That's all,” Sunshine said.

“No, you didn't. This was the five I left with the tip. I know it is because it had this ink spot on Abraham Lincoln's face,” Crystal said.

“Jesus, what do you do, memorize the way your money looks?” Sunshine asked.

No one spoke.

“I remember because I thought it was odd that there was an ink spot on it,” Crystal said slowly. “You took the waitress's tip.”

“What of it? She'll get tips from people who can afford it better,” Sunshine said.

“That's awful,” Crystal insisted.

“Oh, and I suppose stealing someone's car will get you the Nobel Prize,” Sunshine retorted.

Crystal turned all shades of pink before biting down on her tongue and sitting back.

“It's just not right,” she muttered.

“Money is money, especially when you're on the road. You girls will learn. Hang around me a bit, you'll learn real well,” Sunshine said.

“That's just what I'm afraid of,” Crystal grumbled.

Sunshine laughed.

“Let me tell you about this time in Kansas,” she said instead of continuing the argument. “Talk about being desperate. I had about twenty cents to my name.”

She went from story to story, telling us about places and people and events, stringing the tale of her road trips crisscrossing America, describing her instant love affairs without the slightest embarrassment or regret. It became apparent to us that men were there to be used in her eyes and sex was just a good way to a meal ticket, a bus ticket, or a way not to spend another lonely night someplace in the heart of nowhere.

However, for me and my sisters, it was more than entertainment as we traveled along. It was a description of what could possibly be our own fate if we weren't careful. The problem was how do you be careful when you're in Sunshine's world, where we were now? It made me wonder if we should just turn back and be grateful for what we already had.

We didn't pull off the road again until we all had to go to the bathroom. Crystal returned to her role as navigator and guided us on roads paralleling the main highways for as long as she could. We drove on, holding our breath every time we saw a police car.

“Don't worry so much,” Sunshine told us.
“There are so many vehicles stolen in this country every day, the police couldn't possibly keep up or care. You've got to develop the mask, anyway,” she continued, behaving as if she were our tutor, teaching us how to scrounge and claw out an existence with barely nothing to our name.

“A mask?” Butterfly asked her. She didn't seem as alarmed as we all were by Sunshine's actions and that was beginning to worry me.

“The look,” she replied. “See?” she said turning, batting her eyelashes and looking as sweet as could be. “You have to appear innocent and never give anyone the feeling that you're worried they'll discover something bad about you. Just relax, be casual.”

“How?” Butterfly pursued.

“Tell yourself everyone else is wearing a mask, too, and you can do it. Everyone is, you know. Everyone's taking something from someone else. Some do it legally because they have the government behind them or because they know how to bend laws and take advantage of people. I've seen plenty of it. You ever hear that old expression, whoever didn't sin can throw stones?”

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” Crystal said dryly. “It's in the Bible. Jesus said it.”

“I knew it was from the Bible,” Sunshine replied sharply. “Anyway, that's the way to think and you can get the mask. No one can throw any stones, sweetie pie. Believe me.”

“I'm surprised you call yourself Sunshine with all that dreary, dark thinking,” Crystal commented.

Sunshine turned to her and smiled.