escape

my essay for my english class. The only premise I had was recalling an event.

I watched the clock slowly list through the numbers. I wasn’t waiting for anything important, just a thing that my parents did every night. I waited for them to fall sleep. When the clock finally hit 11:00 pm, I knew it was time to take the chance. I got up and checked to make sure my window  that connected me to the outside was open and ready for me to climb in through for  my trip back inside. On my way out of my room I made sure to let the lock slowly click into place and then I eased the door ever so carefully into place in its frame. 

             Having started the only means of continuing was success or utter failure. I remembered the purpose of the night being a small thing of no importance to most people, but to me that night felt like so much more than me just sneaking out to go see a movie. Success brought freedom, the ability to step around my parents when they were against my activities. Normally they would only let me stay out until 9 at night and that was only after completing homework. They would also restrict which friend’s houses I could go over to overnight and sometimes even during the day.  There was even a time where they wouldn’t let me go see a movie even though I had finished my homework and I was going to be back before 9. I was going to be with friends I thought they trusted. 

            The clock hit 11:02 as I started to open the smoothly transparent sliding glass door. The door could be a little noisy so I opened it slowly while lifting the door a little to take some pressure off the crippled and aged guiding wheel. I stepped out into the darkness. Any sense of hurry left me at that point as I prepared to wade out into its depths. The soft moon light peaked through bits of the blanket of clouds. Everything was then cast in an eerie light. The trash bins hunched together looked like a worg from Tolkien fantasy novels.  The exercise equipment mimicked some gangly undead from horror movies. Continuing on though was more important than any creatures made up by my own imaginings.

             The cool air made the hair on my arms and legs stand up straight, and some goose bumps started to form.  The short walk to the edge of our garage went by slowly, having to creep over the frail discarded tree limbs. Walking over them you usually couldn’t help to make a cracking noise with each step. I picked my path carefully as to avoid the larger sticks, I was lucky in the sense that there were no loud distinct breakings of twigs in my passage. As I inched my head around the corner I peered up towards the fear of that night, my parent’s bedroom.

            Their light was off and I heard no signs of talking emanating from their bedroom window, and for me that was a good sign. There was only the last leg of my journey to be made. As I walked slowly towards the back gate keeping to the shadows I remember thinking about the movie that I was getting ready to go see. The previews I had seen looked amazing for an action movie. This movie had a great combination of martial arts fight scenes as well as an engaging story. This movie told the possibility of being better than any other action movie that I had previously seen. There was one other thing that I also thought about: what other late night activities I could do. I hadn’t partied or gone out much due to my parents’ strict rules about whose house I could stay over at and how frequently I got to go out with friends. This allowed me to look forward to the possibility of enjoying my teenage years. If successful at sneaking out this time, it could be repeated for future teenager activities.

            The moon was finally fully visible and so there laid my destination.  It was the large massive wooden gate to our fence connecting us to our immediate neighbor The United Methodist Church. The gate was so heavy and easy on the hinge that the noise it would make if allowed to shut on its own would have awakened the dead. A simple nudge could accelerate the gate to slam twice that loud. That seemed like no simple task at the time. After a deep breath I stepped forward so that I was but a few inches from the fence. I looked over my shoulder towards my parent’s bedroom window, then after realizing nothing had changed, looked back at the gate.

I laid my right hand on the gate to help support myself. The gate was grainy and coarse to the touch as if the carpenter forgot to smooth the boards before attaching them onto this rickety frame of a gate. I reached up my left hand to the gate’s smooth cold metal latch. I almost pull my hand away at the light shock of the feel of temperature. Another deep breath, I ease the latch out of the cradle that kept the gate solidly in place. I used my right hand to ease the gate open and make a large enough gap that I could squeeze through. I took my left hand off the latch and moved it around to the backside of the latch where a little wire was to make the gate operational from the church yard as well. I took a step with my right foot first so that I came through still facing the gate. I let the gates own weight push against my palm as I allow the gate to come to rest in its relaxed sagging position. There was no loud noise that time as I let the latch quietly click into place.

I turned and looked out over the expanse of the church’s grassy lawn; the way the moonlight shined off of everything made the buildings seem aglow. My path was well illuminated before me. I walked slowly knowing that there was no rush and that I had been successful. I pumped my fist in the air as I took it all in, the success, the adrenaline slowly leaving me and my happiness. I almost strutted like a rooster on its way to the hen house on my way to my friend’s white Ford Escort station wagon. His car was usually more of a dirty off-white due to the dirt road that he lived down, but it had been a recently cleaned at that time. David with his taller stockier build looked down on me as I walked up. The moon light glinted off of his glasses not permitting me to see his eyes. His dark hair shadowed most of his features; this would have made it hard to distinguish him if I hadn’t already known he would be there. I had an impression he was as happy for me. He patted me on the back and questioned, “Are you ready?” I look at him and say, “of course!”

            Nik, as tall and lanky as he was, already had the passenger seat pushed backed, and with David also being tall, that made the more comfortable seat in the middle. So, for the ride there I squeezed into the middle. I glanced at the car clock and it read 11:06 pm. I only vaguely remember the ride as I briefly told them how I had snuck out. When I was finished I leaned back and enjoyed myself for the ride. I was thinking so much about what I had just done and what I accomplished that I wasn’t even sure where we were or even what theatre we had gone to. I later found out it was the Folsom movie theatre.             “Brotherhood of the Wolf” was worth the risk that night. The next day was just like any other day, and my parents were none the wiser about last night. That day marked a turning point in my life. I would later sneak out on many more occasions for the next 3 years of my time living with my parents. I got bolder and more casual with each time, assuming that since I had never been caught I had nothing to worry about. I was free to do things I wanted and it felt good.