Dedication
Dear reader,
This is my tenth published story. In my ignorance the first two stories were published without consulting an editor. After some well-meant advice from some readers, I went looking for an editor, but my requests were in vain until an email dropped in my box from someone offering to edit my fantasies.
As a writer I will never attain his level and quality of writing, but with a lot of help from the man from the Southeastern U.S. my stories improved considerably.
SouthernCrossfire thank you so much for your efforts, patience and excellent suggestions. This one's for you.
Disclaimer
All likeness to persons, institutions and companies in the story are completely incidental.
Nothing in this story has any relation to reality.
Oh, and of course everything and everybody engaged in any sexual activity is 18 years or older.
Part One.
Ten years ago.
It was the evening before his eighteenth birthday.
Robert finished packing his backpack; his meager belongings fit in only that and a small suitcase. He was preparing to leave his home, his parents, and his siblings, never to return. He definitely didn't want to be here tomorrow.
Robert had been planning his exit for two years, working his butt off at school and his part-time job, even landing a scholarship because he was a straight-A student. Robert told the school administrator that he wouldn't attend graduation day so now he carefully packed his diploma and his birth certificate in his suitcase along with the rest of his stuff. His battered laptop went into the backpack. Everything he packed he had also paid for with hard earned money like loading and unloading trucks at a hub from a major expeditor. His father always told him that if he wanted something he had to work for it.
Robert's father also told him numerous times that he wouldn't pay for a child that arrived at least 5 years late, promising Robert that he would present him with a bill when he turned 18 for services rendered like housing, food, and clothes. The only exception was that they gave him an old hand-me-down pre-paid telephone so he would be available on every beck and call from his family. Robert knew early on that he wasn't welcome here. His sisters and especially his brothers used him as their personal punching bag, bullying him and using him as an errand boy. Now this all was going to end. He intended to disappear and attend a university on the other side of the country.
At five minutes to midnight, Robert closed the door behind him, unnoticed by the rest of the family, and walked the nine miles to the bus station.
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The next morning Lucia, his mother, knocked on Robert's door. "Robert, time to get up. You will be late for work!"
She had prepared breakfast for his birthday. Normally Robert was up first and in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Fifteen minutes later when Robert still hadn't shown up, Lucia went and knocked on the door again, this time much louder. When there was still no reply, she went into the room.
To her astonishment, she found it empty, spotless and devoid of any of Robert's personal belongings. It looked like he had never been there. The only thing she noticed was a fat envelope lying on the bed with his cell phone on top. She took the envelope and went to the kitchen.
Robert's father Marcus looked up from his breakfast and said, "Is that lazy shit still sleeping?"
"No, he wasn't there. Except for this, his room is empty," Lucia replied, while she handed Marcus the envelope.
Grumbling, Marcus ripped the envelope open. A note and a wad of paper money fell out. Marcus looked unbelievingly at the money.
"What the hell?" he mumbled. While reading, his hands started to shake, his face went red and he started to swear, "Shit, shit, shit. Fuck, fuck. No, no, no! That stupid shit. I just didn't want him spoiled. He read out loud.
When you read this, you've seen the last of me. I left and won't come back. My sperm-donor told me that he would present me with a bill for 18 years of lodging when I reach that age. This money is to pay that bill. I reckoned that this should be enough because of the discount for all the abuse I had to take from said sperm-donor and his cronies. All the extra chores I had to do which my brothers and sisters never even had to think about let alone doing them and all the bullying from my siblings.
Go and rot in hell, all of you.
Robert
"What? No! He didn't write that, Lucia cried unbelievingly. She tore the letter from Marcus' hands and she started to read the short letter herself.
She sat down heavily. For a while it was silent in the kitchen but for the heavy breathing of the two adults. Then Lucia began, "You'd better...."
She stopped, took a shuddering breath and began anew, this time in a louder and much stronger voice. "You'd better get your ass out of that chair and start looking for him. NOW!"
Marcus grumbled, "Don't get all worked up, woman. He'll be back. Where can he go?" He went on eating.
"Marcus, you better start looking for the boy or I'll start looking for a lawyer. Do you understand?"
Now Lucia had Marcus's fullest attention. Robert took after his wife, a bit shy, introverted and mostly compliant. But if Lucia started to get riled up, one better head for shelter. Stubbornly he tried again, "Why? He'll be back. Where can he go? He'll come back when his money runs out. He will be back. Believe me! And when he is back, I'll teach him a lesson so hard, he'll never try that again! The stupid shit."
Lucia said nothing but went upstairs. Marcus thought nothing about it. He was used to having it his way. Fifteen minutes later a bag came tumbling down the stairs. He looked at the bag and at Lucia who walked down after it.
She said, "This is on you and your treatment of the boy. I'm going to Ruth's and stay there. I'm quite certain that our eldest daughter still has the phone number from her lawyer from when she divorced that cheating asshole. You'd better start looking or I will find myself somewhere else to live permanently."
Lucia walked out of the house leaving a stunned and a now very worried husband behind.
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Meanwhile Robert had changed buses and was on his way to the train station. He figured that traveling by train was much more comfortable and as anonymous as using buses. And it was almost as cheap. The bus ride to the station would take a while so he pulled out his laptop and diary. First he updated his diary, and when done, he opened his laptop and went on with writing his science fiction story. It was the only thing that kept his mind from the turmoil he felt within.
He felt a presence and looked up. "Wolfholt. This Is as far as this bus goes, young man. You have to get off," the bus driver told him.
Robert looked around. Had he been writing for three hours? It certainly looked like that. He gathered his belongings, got off the bus, and started walking to the train station. There, he bought a ticket to Blueswick by way of Waynesburg. It was about as far as he could get away from his former home and the university had a good reputation.
The train departure was over three hours. Robert was ravenous so he found a small coffee shop and ordered himself a cup of tomato soup and a corned beef on rye sandwich.
The waitress was a nice young woman who took a shine to the gangly and rather shy young man. The cup was filled to the brim with soup and Robert had to search for the bread under the corned beef. When he smiled and said, "Thank you, you're a dear," she actually blushed so hard that even her cleavage went red.
