Chapter Three
By Melody A. Flores
I twitched anxiously in bed, staring at the clock.
11:47 PM slowly turned into 11:48 PM.
Why is it that when you’re dreading something, minutes feel like decades?
Each minute slowly ticked away.
Feeling like I couldn’t wait for a second longer, I sat up in bed.
11:53 PM was as good as midnight any day!
Getting my backpack, I slid past the beds of my fellow orphanage-mates for the last time. Being careful not to open it so fast it would squeak, I opened the door wide enough for me to slide through. I peered into the dimly lit hallway.
I could make out the outline of a person in the hallway and I stepped back in alarm.
As my eyes adjusted to the moonlight streaming in the hallway, I realized it was just Gabriel.
“What are you doing here?” I whispered when Gabriel came toward me. He was wearing a thick jacket and snow boots. He looked all ready to sleep in the cold.
“I was tired of waiting in bed, so I waited out here,” He answered.
There was silence for a moment.
“Do you have your knapsack?” I asked.
“Sure do,” Gabriel replied, holding up his dirty, beat up pack.
“Good.”
“What about you?”
“Same here.”
There was another pause.
Turning toward the staircase, I motioned Gabriel to follow.
“Don’t talk from here on until I say it’s okay to, alright?” I whispered, knowing that any word that was spoken a bit too loud could mean being caught.
Gabriel nodded.
With that, we started down the hall toward the staircase. Stepping lightly, we shuffled our silent way past the stairs, through the kitchen, and the recreational room.
We got closer and closer toward the main entrance.
Step, step
Creeeak
We froze.
Nobody appeared.
Step, step, step
We both held our breath as we inched towards the door.
I held my breath and reached toward the doorknob. We were too close to freedom to be caught!
I slowly opened the door.
Once it was open enough, I nearly ran outside, and Gabriel followed right at my back.
A gust of freezing wind blew at us as soon as we were outside, swallowing our twin sighs of pure relief.
And as the icy wind stung our cheeks, we stood there, panting more from pure fear and adrenaline than any exertion we had made.
I couldn’t believe it.
We were runaways now.
Then, Gabriel turned to me.
“W-what now?” He asked me, teeth chattering. Only then did I realize how cold it actually was out there in the dark, wintery night.
“I- I don’t know,” I shivered, starting to regret not planning the escape out better.
Not knowing what else to do, I started walking. “Maybe moving will warm us up a bit,” I said, trying to be cheerful.
Gabriel fell into step with me.
Wordlessly, we started to roam the moonlit roads. Surprisingly, there weren’t many people out, and even then, they took no notice of two boys alone on the streets at night.
After walking for what seemed like hours, I felt my eyelids get heavy. I knew we couldn’t walk all night, and I knew that since I was the one that had proposed running away, I was responsible for finding me and Gabriel a place to sleep tonight. After all, I was the one who had persuaded my little brother to run away with me.
We walked by one store, then another, and another until I lost count of how many we had passed. In the dark, they all looked the same.
After what seemed like hours, we passed a building with lamps still on inside and warmth practically radiating from it.
I could barely keep myself from swinging the doors open and letting myself in from the freezing cold.
“It looks so warm inside that store,” Gabriel whispered longingly, as if he too were tempted to sleep all night in the shop.
I noticed a small alley between the shop and the building next to it, but even more importantly, the small vacant woodshed at the back of it.
“Hey, if we sleep in that woodshed, we’ll have shelter, and in the morning, we won't have to worry about anybody seeing us,” I motioned toward the alleyway.
Gabriel nodded, too sleepy to reply.
We shuffled into the alley, too tired and too glad that the wind wasn’t hitting us anymore to say anything.
Gabriel let out a huge yawn.
He then plopped down on the floor and leaned back against a pile of wood. I sat down too. I looked up through a tiny window that showed the sky outside. It was a little too cloudy for comfort.
Please, oh please don't let it snow!
The snow could get awfully deep around here, and I wasn’t looking forward to trudging through freezing snows with no food or proper warmth…