Authors: D. G Torrens
I promise to be true until the end.
When my destiny is in my hands,
I promise to waste not a single moment.
When my destiny is in my hands,
No longer will I suffer this inner torment.
When my destiny is finally in my own hands
the first thing for me is to travel the land.
One particular day, I was in the games room playing table tennis with another boy
and in walked my archenemy, Donna.
S
he was bor
e
d and decided it would be great fun to pick on me and embarrass me
in front of the other children.
I decided to walk out and ignore her
,
which was the only way to deal with her
,
e
xcept this time she followed me.
I ran into Ain
sley unit to find safety among
th
e staff, but no one was there.
I shouted at her to leave me alone
,
but she just ignored me
and started jumping on me
, thumping me in the head. I let her do her worst,
and then
ran to my room sobbing. Before
s
he left,
she warned me not to
tell
on her or I would receive more of the same.
I told my new friends Liam and Paul what had happened as they
would
often f
a
ll prey to
Donnas’
bullying ways too, and it was then when they told me they had been pl
anning to escape and run away.
T
hey invited me to join
them and I jumped at the chance.
Liam was from Shropshire like me, so we decided to walk all the way to Shropshire
from Bryn Tyn following the River S
even and the A5. We waited for a coup
l
e of days until it was the weekend as there was always les
s staff on duty,
which made it a lot easier to escape. We had all packed our runaway kit
,
which consisted of crisps, chocolate, a can of pop, some fruit
,
and our pocket money. This time
it was going to be different;
we were not going to get caught. We were not g
oing to run to anybody we knew;
we were going to survive alone and find somewhere to live once we arrived in Shropshire.
On the Saturday morning after breakfast, we went to
collect our weekly pocket money.
W
e told the staff that we were going to play by the stream at the end of the fields by the woods. We went to our rooms
,
collected our bags
,
dressed accordingly in preparation for our long journey
,
and then we all met by the stream. We were all very excited and knew we would be in a lot of trouble if we got caught this time as they had started coming down hard on runaways.
Once we were all present we just looked at each other and started running, all the
while laughing with excitement.
W
e crossed the wide stream
which boasted a small waterfall at the back,
and climbed up the bank on the other side and followed the track through the woods until we reached the main road. We found our way to the ri
ver and started walking toward
Shro
pshire. W
e all knew the way; we had all run away many times and then made the journey back by car silently just staring at the signs on the
way back. It was a warm summer
day
,
and after a few miles we stopped for lunch and sat along the
river
eating our crisps, we then decided it would be great fun to go swimming in the river, so we all stripped down to our underwear and splashed about in the river for
the longest time
. Eventually we all climbed out again and lay down on the grass to dry off.
After some
time we started walking again. W
e were singing along the way
,
totally oblivious to everything around us
,
including the
p
olice car up ahead on the main road which had pulled over. The two policemen had already got out of the
car and were heading toward us.
It was Liam who
spotted them
.
“Run for it
!
”
he shouted
.
W
e all looked up
and
spotted the men in blue and started running like we had never run before. We soon lost them and slowed down to a walking pace to catch our breath. By this time we knew it wou
ld not be long before night
set in so we started looking for somew
here to bed down for the night. A
fter a m
ile or so we spotted a farm up a
head with
quite a few outhouses attached.
W
e decided to check it out as this looked to be the perfect place for the night.
As we approached the farm we were very careful not be seen and raise
an alarm. W
e bent down and ra
n under the window of the farmhouse, which appeared to be empty.
I peered th
r
ough the window and could not see anyone. We walked around to the back of the farmhouse and saw that the ba
ck door to the kitchen was ajar.
We made our way slowly toward
the door
, looking around in case anyone was coming.
W
e all sneaked
into the large country kitchen. T
here were large pots and pans every
where.
B
ut what interested us was the
large
uncut loaf on the side
and the large plate of cheese—
dinner
,
we all thought in unison!
We grabbed the bread and chees
e and ran out of the back door. We looked around and ran toward
one of the three ba
rns situated up ahead. We chose
the barn furthest away and with a good view so we could see who was coming at any time from most directions. We all slipped in through the barn door
,
which consisted mostly of bal
es of hay, perfect just perfect.
W
e all put our bags down and made ourselves comfortable. The only thing we did not have was water or a drink of any kind.
One of us would have to go back to the farmhouse and fetch some water or milk from the fridge. Liam was the eldest and volunteered
. T
hank goo
dness because
I was far to
o
scared, and knowing my luck I would be caught.
Liam made his way back to the farmhouse
. H
e was nearly at the back door when a large
, pot-
bellied ma
n came walking around the corner.
Liam acted very quickly and ducked down behind the tractor, wait
ing while the man walked toward
the field
,
which kept at the very least forty sheep.
Paul suddenly spoke in
a
panic
,
“
Amelia
,
look over there
.
”
A
lady was approaching the tr
actor, and Liam had not seen her.
“
O
h no
,
what
are we going to do now?” I said.
T
hen all of a sudden Liam rolled under the tractor just in time as the lad
y walked past and into the farm
house.
“Phew
,
that was lucky,”
s
aid Paul
.
“Yes
,
quite,”
I replied
. We
allow
ed
ourselves to breath
e
again.
Liam stayed under the tractor for over
thirty minutes
until the lady came back out again,
and then he ran into the farm
house kitchen and back out again in quick time, armed with a full bottle of milk and a packet of biscuits. We were very proud of him. We each sat on a bale of hay and ate our sumptuous dinner of bread, cheese
,
and biscuits, washed down with some fresh cold milk. As dusk crept up on us
,
we looked around the barn for a safe place to s
leep where we would not be seen.
We all agreed to climb
the ladder to the floor above and sleep
ing
at the very back under the hay. It was warm and out of sight and that was all we needed.
The following morning we all shook
ourselves
free of all the hay that was imbedded just about everywhere
.
W
e finished off the remaining bread and c
heese from the night before
then set of
f
once more on our journey. Again
,
we chose to follow the line of the river
,
as for the most part we wer
e out of sight of the main road.
T
his was now day two of our great escape and we were all feeling very proud of ourselves. We followed the river all day
,
until we all agreed it was now safe enough to climb up on to the
main road and carry on toward
Shrewsbury
.
W
e had accomplis
hed half of our journey already;
it was the weekend and no one would think it
strange that a small group of fourteen
year olds were walking along the road. We took advantage of this and continued on our way.
We were all feeling rather hungry again as the last mea
l we had eaten was at breakfast.
M
y tummy had been rumbling for over an hou
r
. Just up ahead we could see a garage, which
also sold sweets and crisps.
W
ithout any discussion we upped our p
ace and headed straight toward
the busy garage. We stocked up on crisps, pop, chocolate, and the boys bought
ten
John Player special cigarettes
,
as they were both smokers and had not had a smoke all day. We parked ourselves on a wall
, re-fueling our hungry tummies.
Liam thought it would be a great idea if we thumbed
a lift for the rest of the way.
I was not at all keen on the id
ea and told the boys that I would
be walking all the way to Shropshire no matter what, and continued to remind them of the dangers that could befall you if you thumbed a lift. This was enough of a deterrent
,
and it was agreed we would continue to walk the last leg of our journey.
As we approached Shrewsbury Town, we were all feeling rather tired and weary so
we
decided that we would stay in the town for the night. Where we would all sleep was anyone’s guess
.
W
e started looking around for e
mpty shops and vacant buildings.
W
e must have circled half the town before we happened upon an old derelict building
that
sported a gr
eat huge DANGER sign
. None of us questioned the immediate danger this building could place us in; we just saw this as our only hope for a place to sleep for the night.
We all tugged at the corrugated iron sheets
,
which were nailed tight over the window,
and
when we had pulled it back far enough for us to fit through
. We
each carefully climbed through the hole and made our way into the large
,
dank room that
greeted us. The room was filthy;
there were a couple of old
,
dirty mattresses lying on the
floor, and
we decided to investigate upstairs as it could not possibly be any worse.
As we made our way up the broken steps
,
we were mindful of treading carefully or we could end up with a broken leg or two. As we neared the top
, we
hear
d
a rustling sound coming fro
m the other end of the building.
W
e all stopped dead in our tracks
,
not knowing whether to carry on or to make a run for it. We stayed like that for a few seconds
,
then Liam decided he would investigate
and told Paul and I to stay put.
H
e quietly made his
way
up the last couple of steps
and
then he was out of
sight. All
we could hear was Liam walking around and the floorboards creak
ing. Then we heard talking. Liam shouted to us
that everything was ok
ay.
W
e climbed to the top and made our way to the back of the building
.
Liam was talking to a rather scruffy man
, who smelled very bad.
T
he few teeth he own
ed were either black or cracked. H
e had on a long
,
dirty
, gray
coat
,
which was covered in stains and looked
like it had never been cleaned.
H
e had made himself at home on the top floor of the building with an old chair, an old mattress
, and some old blankets.
H
e had a few meager belongings
in a brown box and that was it,
this was his home for now.
H
e went on to explain that he was one of life’s w
a
nderers, he liked the open road, and spent his life moving from one place to another
and taking advantage of any opportunity that came his way.
Liam told him our story and that we needed somewhere to stay for the night, that this old building seemed perfect if it was ok
ay with him.
T
he vagrant looked all three of us up and down, and then mumbled to himself for a while
. He
finally agreed we could share the building for the night. I could not sleep that night
;
I didn’t feel safe and kept one eye on the vagrant at all times, although I had no real reason to fe
ar him.
H
e was far more interested in the bag of chips he had begged from the chip shop down the road just before it closed.
The following morning we all got up early, straightened ourselves out
,
and then decided to
start on our journey once more.
W
e said goodbye to the grumpy vagrant who just mumbled as we made our way down the stairs. When we found our way out of the window and onto the street
,
we looked at each other and I spoke first
,
“I’m starving.
Let’s
get some breakfast.”
Liam and Paul agreed and we al
l pooled our money together. W
e had the grand total of £
7, so we needed to make it last.