The Trip to Grafton

After wrecking Darrell’s car, the three of us decided that the best course of action was to walk to Grafton and try to catch a train to Florida. We had been unsuccessful in hitching onto any of the moving trains, even after we set off warning flares for the engineers to slow down. Our only recourse was to walk to the Grafton train yard and hide in one of the boxcars while it was parked. How we were going to find out which trains were heading south or if and when they were embarking were questions to be answered only by dumb luck.

The walk to Grafton took the better part of five hours. When we arrived in the city, we were dead tired and needed somewhere to spend the night before heading to the train yard. As we walked through the main street, we saw nothing to convince us that we could find shelter for the night.

Suddenly, Darrell’s friend spotted a house which he said was unoccupied. How he knew that, I don’t know, other than the obvious clues discernible by a non-criminal lay person. Darrell’s friend was a petty thief and hoodlum wannabe. However, he impressed me enough to believe that he could pull off any illegal activity that he wished.

Even though it was early evening and the sun was still shining brightly, Mr. Wannabe casually walked up to a basement window and jimmied the lock in a matter of seconds. All three of us scampered into the basement without anyone seeing us.

We decided to case the house to attempt to find the best place to sleep. The house was completely devoid of any furniture or appliances. We decided on a room on the third floor which looked to be a nondescript bedroom. Even though it was only six o’clock in the evening, I immediately laid down on the floor, covered myself with my jacket and fell asleep.

I awakened at about ten p.m. to noise emanating from the house next door. The neighbors seemed to be having some kind of dinner party. From my position on the floor, I could see out of the bedroom window into their living room area but the people in the neighboring house would have had to strain to see me, because of the curtains and horizontal blinds which covered their window and since only miniscule indirect light illuminated our area.

So, I just lay there for awhile, watching the activity. My two friends had fallen asleep beside me and had not awakened.

I was really getting hungry. And mad. How could I be so stupid to get myself into this kind of situation? Here I am, twenty feet from a family living a happy, normal life, and I’m sleeping on a hardwood floor peering at them like a common criminal.

Yes, the life I could have had. But, I’ve ended up in an abandoned house with a mini hoodlum and my supposed best friend who got me into this situation. No food. No money. No home. No silver lining. I’ve got to be more careful in picking my friends. Oh yeah, and I need to dig up some responsibility for my own actions.

To be continued…