See Tom Run (14 page)

“I know what you’re saying—I feel the same way. All I
can say for sure is that I’m glad I have you. If it weren’t for
you, I would not be able to handle this.”

Tom put his arm around her. “Believe me, kiddo, I
feel the exact same way.”

Within another few blocks, they came upon an Exxon
station. Tom felt the same feeling of déjà vu as he went inside and
began poking around for another fuel can. Erin shopped around for
snacks in the meantime. Amazingly, the shop was very well stocked
and actually had a two-gallon size gas can for sale. Tom picked one
up and headed outside.

There wasn’t a single vehicle on the lot but Tom
spotted an old Buick further up the street. Erin stepped outside
with her groceries in a plastic bag and joined him as he walked
toward the car.

“I hope this old clunker has a lot of gas—I just want
to get on the road and out of this godforsaken place ASAP,” Tom
said as he unscrewed the fuel cap and inserted the hose.

“Want Coke or a water?” Erin asked. “Got Sprite,
too.”

“Coke, please. It’ll be a perfect chaser for the
gas.”

Erin giggled and watched Tom as he began sucking on
the hose. In a moment, he pulled his mouth away just before gas
began flowing out of it. Quickly, he jammed the hose into the gas
can.

“Well, whatdya know—I’m getting better at this!”

When the gas can was full, Tom pulled the hose out of
the Buick’s fuel tank.

“Let’s go back to the Jeep,” he said to Erin. “I’d
let you wait here but I’m not taking any chances on losing you
again.”

She handed him an open bottle of Coke. “I’m not going
anywhere without you, ever again!”

Tom considered what she had just said and a funny
thought came to mind. What would happen between he and Erin in the
event that he was actually reunited with his family? Would the two
of them simply part company and go their separate ways? Or would
they try to continue their relationship in some capacity? A strange
thought, indeed.

He knew one thing for certain: he was oddly attracted
to the girl in a way that he couldn’t really put a finger on. It
wasn’t sexual or anything like that—it was more like an invisible
bond he felt between himself and her. An indefinable
attachment.

Not surprising, really. After all, they had already
gone through a lot of intense situations together. Erin had been
his only ally in this whole absurd thing—his cohort and in fact his
only tangible hope for survival. Had he not discovered her, he
would probably still be back in Columbus right this moment combing
the streets relentlessly for signs of life that may never again
exist.

Whatever the case, he felt certain that he could
never simply forget about the girl and deny himself any contact
with her in the future. He felt a certain responsibility for her
now—to be there to protect her and guide her if need be …

“Tom?” she suddenly said. “What are you thinking
about?”

He realized that his mind had drifted off.

“Oh, nothing in particular. Just daydreaming, I
guess.”

“About finding your family?”

“Yeah, you could say that. And about you, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’m very glad I met you, in spite of the
horrible circumstances under which we have met.”

“That’s funny. I feel the exact same way but couldn’t
find the right way to put it. You just did it for me!” she smiled
brightly.

Tom put his arm around her waist and pulled her close
to his side. Erin followed suit.

He said, “Let’s get gassed up and head back to Ohio,
what say?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Erin replied, holding him
tighter.

CHAPTER 13

As they drove through Easton, Pennsylvania, Tom felt
bold enough to ask Erin a few questions about her past. She had
slept most of the hour and a half drive and awoken moments ago. The
girl was still a little groggy but in good spirits.

“You warm enough?” he asked.

“Yeah, like toast. It sure is a lot warmer today than
it was yesterday.”

“I hope this weather holds out. The turnpike can be
rough when it’s snowing.”

Erin chuckled. “Kyle almost totally wiped out at
least twice. His car was lousy in the snow—not to mention that he
is, or was, a pretty bad driver.”

“How long had you known Kyle,” Tom asked, trying to
sound as nonchalant as possible.

She thought for a moment then replied, “About two
years.”

“Where was he from—Ohio?”

“No, he was from Long Island. I met him in Ohio,
though.”Tom could already sense the hesitation in her voice. Time
to back off? He’d play it by ear.

“When I lived in the city, I used to go out on Long
Island quite a bit. Some really nice beaches out there.”

“I know—we went to Montauk one day, out on the very
end of the island. It was so pretty! So much nicer than the
city.”

“So you lived in New York, too?” Tom asked, surprised
she had never mentioned it before.

Again, the slightest hesitation in her voice. “Yeah,
for a while.”

“With your family?”

Silence.

Tom looked over at Erin. Her head was turned and she
was staring out the window. He waited a moment and said, “Erin—you
okay?”

“I’m fine,” she replied, continuing to stare.

“I hope I didn’t say something wrong.”

Erin turned and faced him, a tear in her eye. “No,
you didn’t. I just don’t really know how to answer you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I haven’t really ever had a family, Tom. I was
adopted.”

Tom realized he had hit on a very delicate subject.
He also wanted to know more about it.

“I’m sorry, Erin. If you’d rather not talk about it,
I’ll understand.”

She smiled wanly. “No, it’s fine. There’s really not
a whole lot to say other than I was adopted as a baby and that I’ve
been in several foster homes throughout my life. That’s about all
there is to it.”

“How long have you been on your own?” he asked,
recalling that she lived alone in her own apartment.

“Oh, about six months.”

“Do your foster parents live nearby—I mean in
Ohio?”

“If you’re referring to my last ones, yes. In
Cleveland.”

“You keep in touch with them?”

“Not really. Listen, Tom. I appreciate your interest
in my past but I’d prefer not to say anymore about it. No offense,
but I really don’t think I can do it. Not now, anyway. Maybe later,
I don’t know. Do you understand?”

Tom was angry with himself—he realized that he’d
pushed her too hard much too soon. He should have taken more time
with her.

“Sure, I understand. I’m sorry, Erin. I won’t pry
anymore.”

She held his eyes for a moment and said, “I didn’t
think you were prying, Tom. It’s just that, I don’t know, my past
has not been the kind that anyone would be proud of. In fact, it
has been horrible and disgusting. I don’t want you to think badly
of me. I’m afraid that if you knew about my life, you … you
wouldn’t like me anymore!”

Tom’s was stunned. She couldn’t be any further from
the truth.

“That’s ridiculous, Erin! I don’t care what you’ve
done or not done before—it won’t change how I feel about you now. I
really like you. A lot. And I care about you a lot. Nothing you
could do or say would ever make me think any differently of
you.”

She smiled sweetly. “You really mean that?”

“Of course I do.”

“I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said
to me,” she said, her eyes welling up again.

“Well, I just want you to know that it’s true,” Tom
said, offering his hand to her.

She took his hand in hers and squeezed. She breathed
a long sigh of resignation, as if she were about to shed a great
weight off her shoulders. “My life has been so, so pathetic! You
are not going to like what I’m about to tell you.”

“Try me,” he said encouragingly.

Erin sighed deeply. “Well, I guess I’ll start at the
beginning. My first memories of growing up were in Youngstown. My
first foster parents were very nice to me and it wasn’t until I was
older, seven years old to be exact, that they let me know that they
weren’t my natural parents. That crushed me.”

“Why would they tell you that in the first place,
especially at that young age?”

“Because they could no longer afford to raise me,
that’s why. My foster dad had lost his job and my mother had just
been a part time waitress. They tried to make ends meet but simply
couldn’t—Youngstown had fallen on some hard economic times. So they
had to send me back to the adoption agency.”

Tom was speechless. Surely her foster parents could
have tried harder to make it work instead of taking that route. He
bit his tongue, though.

“So what happened then?”

“I was adopted by another family. They had a couple
of other kids, too, so it was sort of neat. At first, anyway.”

“What do you mean, ‘at first?’”

“Let’s just say that my new father was—well, he
molested me.”

Jesus! Tom thought. How much worse could this
get?

“Oh Erin, I’m so sorry to hear that,” was all he
could say.

“It went on for three years. Finally, he got caught.
By my foster mother. I was out of that place in a flash.”

“You had never told anyone before?” Tom asked,
bewildered.

“No, are you kidding? He told me he would kill me if
I told anyone, and I believed him!”

Tom was speechless. All he could think of was this
poor orphaned girl who had first been rejected by one family only
to be relocated to another one with a parent that was supposed to
be raising her molesting her. How in Christ’s name could anyone be
that cruel?

Erin said, “I know what you’re probably thinking now:
oh poor little Erin. But don’t think that way, Tom. It wasn’t the
end of the world and I don’t need your sympathy. I probably
deserved what I got …”

“That is an absurd thing to say, Erin! No child
deserves to be abused, period. I can’t believe you would even think
like that.”

“You could never understand, Tom. No one can. I felt
lucky just having a roof over my head and living a fairly normal
life instead of being forced to live in some awful orphanage. I
can’t begin to describe what goes on in orphanages but trust me,
it’s worse than you could ever imagine.”

“All I know is that I hope they punished the bastard
who did that to you. What ever became of him?”

“I don’t know—I never heard any more about it. I had
to go back to the orphanage after that, which was in Cleveland,
until someone else adopted me again.”

“And how long was that?”

“Too long. I started picking up some pretty bad
habits at the orphanage.”

“Like?”

“Stealing. Smoking cigarettes. Lying. Drinking.
Should I go on?”

“I’ve got the idea. Go on,” Tom said, feeling sick in
the pit of his stomach. He had a feeling of what was coming
next.

“By the time my most recent foster parents adopted
me, I was a teenager. And they were very good people. The only
problem was, I didn’t realize that at the time.”

“How’s that?”

“Oh, I put them through so much hell! I was a
horrible kid—I hated school, got into fights, drank and smoked much
of the time. I even got into shoplifting just for the thrill of it!
And my parents tried so hard to get me under control. But it was
useless. I was useless …

“I eventually fell in with a pretty bad bunch of
kids, to say the least. We skipped school all the time, went out to
the lake and got high instead of going to classes. Basically, I was
an incorrigible delinquent. By the time I was a sophomore, my high
school career was all but over before it had really begun.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I got suspended twice and almost got expelled
altogether. Yeah, I was that bad! But before I could totally screw
up at school, Kyle came along to save me.”

Tom noted the sarcasm in her voice. She
continued.

“I was partying with some friends one night when I
met Kyle. He seemed like this really cool dude because he dressed
so weird and was from New York, which we all thought was about as
awesome as you could get! We got high together and talked about all
kinds of stuff and I just went crazy over him. He really seemed to
like me, too.

“He told me all about New York, and how he had his
own movie production company in Manhattan. I was impressed and
asked him how old he was. He told me he was twenty-three and had
graduated from N.Y.U. with a degree in film the year before. Then
he told me that I should go back to New York with him—that I could
be a model or an actress if I was willing to work hard enough. He
said I had a great look and that he had all kinds of connections.
He told me that the industry was always looking for cute young
girls like me.

“I was of course floored by all of
this! I mean, New York City—a model or an
actress—
me?
I
basically asked him when we could leave and if now was too
soon!”

Tom imagined the scenario Erin had just described:
wayward teenage girl, potential school dropout at age fifteen or
sixteen and seasoned partier who had zero self esteem being
confronted by Mr. Big City Shit, dressed hip and years older, with
his own “movie production company” in Manhattan at age
twenty-three, ready to make a star out a vulnerable young girl
whose life already seemed like a dead-end street …

Could Erin have fallen for a character like Kyle any
easier?

“So that night, literally, I went home, told my folks
I was going to bed, then packed up and snuck out my window without
them even hearing me. Then I left with Kyle to the city.”

Tom was floored. At the drop of a hat, this young
impressionable girl had run away with a virtual stranger who was
eight years her senior to New York to pursue an acting or modeling
career. The rest of this story could only get worse.