“I told you not to barricade the door!” Mich was already nervous about exposing himself to new circumstances. It wasn’t like there were lots of complicated rules to obey to stay safe. Too many variables. Too much space between atoms.
“I didn’t.” Terah was beyond the corner, struggling with a pack now overloaded with food.
“Well, it’s gonna take a lotta work to get out.”
Terah was grateful to put down the pack for a moment. His shoulders ached. He stepped around the corner. In Mich’s light he could see about ten feet of detritus packed against the door. This was going to take an hour or two. He began pulling pieces of old furniture out and tossing them into the rooms that lined the corridor. After several minutes of this, they’d made no apparent progress.
“They don’t want us to go,” Mich panted between loads.
“That’s why we have to,” Terah responded.
Not sure of the time, they had waited until the sky through the clerestory windows was black. Fortunately night in January is an abundant commodity. It was disorienting not knowing how much time this was taking, or even when they’d started it. Terah had built up a sweat—not something he wanted to do before heading out on a frigid night.
“You soak the layers closest to your body, and to get dry you have to strip everything off just to replace those layers.” His observation didn’t inspire a response from Mich. It was something everyone knew.
“Life’s hard in winter. That’s why I like it.” Mich surely had to be sweating too, but he didn’t complain.
Terah’s arms and shoulders began to complain. Although more active since being on the run, his sedentary lifestyle had none him no favors. Finally Mich was able to worry the door open enough for the two of them and the oversized pack to squeeze through. Once they were outside the door slammed. They wouldn’t be able to get back in.
“But we planned to transfer all my supplies,” Mich lamented.
“It’s not fair, I know,” Terah offered. “But that’s life. When you lose everything you have to start again from scratch. It’s happened to me more than once.”
The cold air embraced them. They couldn’t help but leave tracks in the snow. “When we’re out where we might be overheard, call me Cal. Okay?”
“We shouldn’t’ve left.” Mich was glum.
“It was only a matter of time before the ghosts would’ve got to you. When you’re in an abusive relationship it sometimes feels easier to stay with it than to break free.”
They’d agreed to try to cross water or break their scent as much as possible. Mich had pointed out that tracks in the snow would be obvious, so they’d need to get into at least the outskirts of town so that if anyone followed the visual clues they’d break at shoveled walks and plowed roads. “We gotta cross 80,” Mich said. “Interstates are trickier than rivers.”
Without a map Terah felt lost. “Where’s a crossing point?”
“Broad Street. We’re gonna be exposed a while. Try to act natural. If we get stopped, we’re hikin’ the Appalachian Trail.” It was beginning to get light. Unblocking the door had taken time they couldn’t waste.
“Is it likely? That we’ll get stopped, I mean.”
“Stroudsburg police don’t want bums fuckin’ up the tourist trade. It’s the height of skiin’ season in the Poconos.”
Broad Street turned out to be very exposed. Although the sun didn’t rise until about 7:00 they would look suspicious. “If we get stopped, you’re my son, then.”
“Whatever ya say, Cal.”
The bridge over Interstate 80 was unassuming enough. The neighborhood was modest and the pair didn’t stand out as much as they feared. They headed west on Ann Street. “There’s a Thrift Shop,” Terah whispered. “We can say that’s where we’re going.”
Mich laughed. In the growing light Terah was getting his first good look at the boy. He started to realize why Mich never wanted to be exposed. He continued to play along. Stroudsburg was a small town and they were able to slip down by McMichael Creek without being seen. When they came to Pocono Creek, reluctant though they were to get wet feet, they crossed it. More than once. Mich was guiding them northwest.
“Remind me where we’re going,” Terah asked, his feet beginning to freeze.
“There’s an abandoned convent up in Scotrun. Called St. Grosstestes. Somethin’ strange happened there a couple a years ago. Catholic Church shut it down. Ain’t in ruins, but there’s nobody there. I hope.”
“When I grew up, on the other side of the state, the Poconos were where everyone wanted to go to get away from it all. Looks like the economy on escapism hasn’t held up.”
They’d found a place under a bridge where it seemed safe to build a small fire to dry their feet. The graffiti and remains of other fires indicated the idea wasn’t original with them. Reluctantly they pulled off shoes and socks, but the fire was warm enough as long as they kept changing the angles of their feet. They dug into their provisions, cautiously.
“Poconos are still a draw. Folks from Jersey come over. Still get ‘em from out west too. The area hasn’t built up like the Lehigh Valley.”
Terah’s earlier suspicions about Mich were confirmed as they waited impatiently for things to dry. They held socks over the fire on sticks. Put their feet close when the cold grew too intense.
“So nobody’s looking for you?” Terah asked.
“Why should they? I ain’t on the grid.”
“Parents?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it.”
Silence resumed. The fire crackled.
“How far to Scotrun?”
“About twenty. Might take a day or two.”
They had covered a few miles since the asylum, and they were on the west side of the creek. Hopefully they wouldn’t need to cross it again. Sticking dryish socks into soggy shoes wasn’t a welcome thought, but they had a considerable distance to go. Parks and forest land along the way provided good visual cover. “I once read a bear can smell a person from twenty miles away. Hopefully no bears in Scotrun know we’re coming.”
Light was failing. The ground was very rocky and they’d spied an outcrop well insulated from direct views from local roads. Not exactly a cave, it offered some shelter. Terah insisted Mich take his emergency blanket for the night. “If we keep the fire going, I should be okay.” Donning all the clothes from his pack, given the smallness of the cleft’s opening, adequate heat was retained against freezing. When they reached the convent, Terah knew, he’d have to confront his companion with the truth.
Upon opening his eyes and finding himself alone, Terah felt a stab of panic. Even if Mich hadn’t been honest, he couldn’t find his way on his own.
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