Adele's Stories

I’ve never had a pair of brand new shoes before. I wasn’t quiet sure what to do with them. The lady insisted they were a perfect fit even though I thought they felt a little tight. She told me that that’s normal and I just needed to break them in. But I didn’t want to break them in. I didn’t want to wear them at all. I wanted them to stay new and perfect. I didn’t want them to eventually end up like all my other shoes. I wanted them to last as long as possible.
I placed them reverently on the shelf and stepped back to look at them. I tilted my head and studied them harder. I wanted to memorize every detail of these shoes so I’d have the memory to look back on when they finally wore out and I was back to useless and or no shoes. The door creaked open slowly and I took a step away from the shelf worried someone might have seen me staring. The new foster mom I was placed with peeked her head inside. I’d never had a foster mom before. I ran away before CPS could grab me and continued to go from one place to another hoping I’d keep my freedom and wouldn’t get placed in the system. Look how that turned out. I stifled a sigh.
“I just wondered if you’d like some food.” I don’t think this lady ever had a foster daughter either. She didn’t seem to know how to act around me any more than I did her.
“I’m okay thanks.” I turned my gaze back toward the shoes. She followed my gaze and smiled.
“Do you like your new shoes? I think they’re cute. They’ll look good on you and they go with anything.”
I nodded absentmindedly. I think she said something else then but I didn’t hear. Or at least I pretended not to. Eventually she left and I looked around the room. I’d never had my own room before either. I didn’t want to touch anything. I’m not sure what I thought would happen if I did, but I knew I wouldn’t like it. This all just felt so wrong.

I turned to the window and studied it. I was only on the second floor. It shouldn’t be that hard to climb out and take off in the night. I’d escaped out of higher windows. I made my over to the widow and lifted it. I stuck my head out and looked down. Yeah. It would be the easiest climb down I’d ever done.

Never take a gift for granted. It’s a gift. Use it. My fathers words rang in my head and I had to pull away from the window to sit down and bite back tears. I never asked for this gift father. I’m even entirely sure it is a gift. I buried my head in my knees and let myself cry for the first time in ages. What was so important about gifts anyway? Why should I care about something a stranger gave me? They don’t know me they, don’t care about me. Father cared about me. He was the only one. I used to hang on his every word. Believed anything that came out of his mouth. And look where that got me. I am not staying.

I made my escape out the window that night and made it to the next town before the sun even came up. But not before slipping on my new shoes at the last minute.