The Runaway.

Graduation Day was coming up fast. Mary had been looking for the perfect outfit to wear under her robe. David would be there she knew, somewhere up the back, so she wanted to look perfect. Mary and David were High School sweethearts and were quite sure they would always be together.

The big day arrived and Mary dressed in her new outfit and ran downstairs for breakfast, so happy she couldn’t wipe the smile from her face.

Mary was sitting at the table enjoying her scrambled eggs on toast when her Father burst into the kitchen.

Mary’s Father was an alcoholic and a wife beater, and lorded over the family like an ogre. Mary’s Mother was too scared to leave him or report him, much to Mary’s disgust, so he just continued his rampage.

He silently walked over to the kitchen table, stood looking at Mary for a few moments, then swept her plate off the table with his large hand. Mary sat there furious.

Her breakfast had gone all over her new clothes and left stains all down the front.

Mary jumped up from the table tears welling in her eyes.

“I’m leaving!” she yelled. “I am not putting up with you anymore!” “Go!” her Father yelled. “Get out of my house and don’t come back!”

Mary packed as much as she could into her suitcase, gave her Mum a teary good-bye then jumped into a taxi, out the front of the house. She called David on her phone, to explain that she wouldn’t be at the Graduation, but would catch up with him later.

 David’s Mum answered his phone, and said she didn’t know where he was, but she would leave him a message from Mary. Mary tried ringing him several times, but got no answer.

 She couldn’t wait any longer, she caught the bus to Bankstown, about five hours away, and she had left town by 10am.

She knew some relatives in Bankstown who would put her up for a few nights until she found a job and a place of her own.

Mary rang her Mother a few times, but never got an answer.

 She flitted from job to job as a waitress, checkout chick, taxi driver and even drove a truck for a while, until she settled down as a teller at the Bankstown DMC.

Mary had tried ringing David over the next few years, but his Mum always said he wasn’t home. She eventually gave up trying and forgot about him, put him into her past and moved on.

 Mary had many lovely new friends who worked with her, and others she had met at the nightclub. Mary was enjoying life and had also met a lovely man, who adored her. She married John, whom one of her friends had introduced her to and they moved into a little country house, just outside Bankstown. It had several acres of land with it and was just perfect. Mary and John raised llamas and chickens and after three years welcomed a baby girl named Ronnie.

The years flew by and Ronnie grew into a lovely tall girl with long blonde hair and the sweetest smile. She excelled at College and then at University, and when she left she was a fully qualified Lawyer. Mary and John were very proud of their daughter, and doted on her.

Mary had worked at the DMC for many years, and John was a qualified builder. They both retired at sixty-five and settled down in their little country house, with their animals for company.

Mary woke one morning, went downstairs to get breakfast ready and heard a very strange, anguished yelling coming from outside. John had got up early as usual to feed the llamas and chickens, and now he was lying in the paddock screaming. Mary raced down the paddock to help him, and that’s when she saw the large black snake slithering away. She picked up John’s phone and call emergency, explaining what had happened. The ambulance arrived twenty minutes later, but Mary knew even though she had been giving him resuscitation, it was already too late, he died before reaching the Hospital.

John’s funeral was a very sad day for Mary and Ronnie, and was attended by hundreds of locals.

Two years later Mary got a phone call from her daughter. Ronnie told her she had been on a case, which she couldn’t talk about, but the Judge was from out of town and his name was David Knight. She had wanted a bit of information about the sitting Judge, before the trial, and had investigated his background.

Apparently he went to the same School that Mary went to, and graduated the same year Mary should have. Ronnie wondered if her Mother knew anything about him.

Mary almost dropped the phone. She sat down hard and tried to calm her breathing.

Mary told Ronnie “Yes I do know the Judge, David Knight, and I would love to be able to catch up with him.”

A few days later Ronnie rang again. She said she had told the Judge that her Mum knew him, and would love to catch up with him.

Ronnie had given him her Mum’s address and he was on his way to the house, now!

Mary raced upstairs got changed into a better dress, brushed her hair and put on a smidgen of make-up, which she hadn’t bothered with for years.

Minutes later there was a sharp rap at the kitchen door. Mary opened it to see a very familiar face smiling at her.

David had put on a little weight, his hair was almost all gone and he had a few wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, otherwise he looked the same as all those years ago.

“Mary!” he said. “It’s so wonderful to see you again!”

Mary invited him in for a coffee, as they had a lot to catch up on.

David said he was so sorry for not answering her calls. His well-off parents thought that Mary (with the alcoholic Father) wasn’t good enough for him, so they insisted he wasn’t allowed to speak to her or he would be cut off from his family and his inheritance.

Mary explained what had happened that day and that she had tried to let him know.

They talked for many hours. David was married to a woman he had met a few years after Mary had left.

He believed that if Mary cared for him, she would have called that day. It was years later he found out that she had called.

They talked about their families and how their children were all grown up and had wonderful careers.

David had two boys who were Doctors, and he had met Mary’s daughter, Ronnie, who he admired very much.

Mary and David kept in touch and quite often Mary and Ronnie accompanied David and his family to a concert or a restaurant. They all became very good friends, for many years.

After so many years of being apart, they had at last found each other again.