Susan slowly gets up off her living room floor. Every inch of her body was screaming in pain as she slowly stood up. She could feel blood sliding down the side of her face as she looks around at the mess surrounding her. All the furniture and appliances in her house were either broken or scatter from where they use to be. She moved very slowly, so the pain she was feeling didn’t hurt her so much. This was the last time she was going to put-up with the abuse from her husband.

She knew if she stayed here any longer, her husband would finish her off. She was so stupid to have agreed to marry him. She should have never been allowed to marry him, but the stupid state of Virginia allowed her to get marry at fifteen and eight months years old. She couldn’t blame them for her stupid mistake, but they shouldn’t have allowed her to marry. She had run away from the foster home she had been sent to after child protective services had taken her away from her alcoholic father. Her father had abused her and was unable to care for her. The foster parents she had been sent too was only in it for the money and barely gave her any attention or anything. So, she mostly did what she wanted to do.

The reason she had run away was because she had met her husband while at a friend’s party. They had hit it off right away. He had told her that he loved her and would always treat her nicely and shower her with gifts. For the first few months, he did everything he said that he would do. He always made her feel special and took care of her. Sure, there were times when he would lose his temper, but he always made up for it. The day she had run away to be with him, they spent a week in a hotel room and party every night. When she missed her period the following month, she became worried and bought one those home self- testing pregnancy kits and founds out she was pregnant. When she had told her boyfriend about it, it was like his world had lit up. He was so proud of her. They had gone the next day and gotten married. Her social worker went ahead approved her marriage license and consent. The next two months after that, her husband started to change. He was becoming more abusive towards her. She had seen him starting to take more of the drugs he was selling himself. It seemed that no matter what she did, it would set him off. She places her hand on her womb and tears slide down her cheeks. She had a miscarriage because of the punches she had taken to her midsection from her husband one night. She had felt the pain and discharge from her body.

Susan heads into the bathroom and takes care of her bruises and cuts. First Aid was nothing new to her. She had learned it when she lived with her father. After taking care of her bruises and cuts, she heads into their bedroom and reaches under the bed and up into the box spring and pull down an envelope she kept hidden there. It was her emergency money that she had kept hidden from her husband. She knew there was at least four thousand dollars in the envelope. Some of it had been money she had set aside from the money her husband gave her to buy groceries for the apartment. The rest of the money was from her winning from the scratch off tickets she had won. She never told her husband about them. She grabs a bag from the closet and starts filling it up with her clothes and music. She retrieves the spare keys to the new car they had just purchase and puts her worn leather jacket on.

She leaves him a note telling him that she wasn’t going to take it anymore and she was going to file for a divorce. She puts it, where she knew he would see it and leaves her apartment. She heads down stairs to the parking lot and over towards the 2012 Cadillac Escalade he had just purchase. She knew by the time he realizes she had taken the car, she would be long gone. As she gets in, she wonders where she should go. She starts the Cadillac up and heads towards the interstate. She had just gotten her driver license two weeks ago and this was only maybe the fifth time she had been behind the wheel of their new car. She had always like horses and decided to travel out west. It would be the last place her husband would look for her. She wanted to get as far away from her husband as possible and restart her life over. She programs the GPS unit in the Cadillac and plugs her mp3 player in the radio and listens to music as she travels.

Susan follows the direction from the GPS and doesn’t look back as she gets on the interstate and leaves the Hampton Roads area. She drives till she starts getting tired and pulls into a rest stop in Kentucky to get some sleep. She figures she could save money by sleeping in the Cadillac for the night. She pulls the Cadillac over to a seclude area in the parking lot. She gets out and heads towards the ladies’ room to freshen up and relieve herself. Afterwards, she heads back to the Cadillac and grabs a blanket she had brought with her and lays down on the back seat of the Cadillac. She programs the alarm clock on her cell phone to wake her up in six hours.

Susan wakes up when her cell phone starts ring. She takes a look at the number on it and notice it was her husband’s cell number. She cancels the call and goes back to sleep. She was tired from driving all night and from her injuries. When she had stopped to get gas a few hours ago the clerk had stared at her. She knew she had a black eye and her cheek had a big ole bruise on it. Even though she had cleaned the cut where her head had been hurt. It had started dripping blood again. She had cleaned it again and this time she put a bandage on it, to keep her hair from getting stuck and pulling on it when she brushes her hair. She ignores the repeated calls from her husband. After a while they stop coming. She finally drifts back to sleep and enjoy the peace and quiet inside the Cadillac.

Her alarm clock goes off six hours later. Susan opens her eyes and stares out the tinted windows of the Cadillac. Her mind was still a little foggy on where she was. She lays there and tries to get herself motivated to sit up. As she starts sitting up pain shoots up from places on her body where her husband had kicked her. Tears stream down her cheeks as she fights to overcome the pain. She reaches down to her purse, which she had put on the floor before she went to sleep and takes out a white pill bottle and opens it. She pops three aspirins into her mouth and swallows them. Normally, she would use water to make them go down, but she couldn’t find her bottle of water she had last night.

She slowly opens the door of the Cadillac and gets outs. She shields her eyes from the afternoon sunlight and heads towards the lady’s rest room to relieve her poor bladder. Once she was done doing what she needed, Susan heads out of the lady’s room and stops at the refreshment machines and grabs a bag of chips and a pepsi. She walks over to the huge road atlas of Kentucky. She figures if she drives all night like she did last night she could be in Nebraska by morning. Once she gets to Nebraska, she’ll take a day to rest, before continuing towards Montana. She heads back to her Cadillac and gets in. She checks her phone to see who tried to call her and notice most of her calls were her husbands. There was a call or so from her friend Kelly.

Susan dials Kelly’s number.

Kelly hears her ring tone for her friend Kelly going off. She pulls her cell phone out of her pocket and answers it.

“Hello!”

“Susan?”

“Hey! Kelly. What do you want?” Susan recognized Kelly voice. She holds her cell phone near her ear.

“Susan, where are you? Robert is out looking for you and he is in a foul mood right now.” Kelly knew that Susan and Robert fought sometimes, but her friend had never run away from him.

“Good! I’m tired of being beat on by him. I lost our baby because the bastard punched me in my abdomen several times.” Susan was happy when she found out she was pregnant. She thought the baby would finally make them a family and would make Robert get a real job, instead of being a drug dealer.

“Girl, right now he is combing the streets looking for you and that Cadillac you two brought. He’s more concern about that Cadillac then he is about you. He said that if I hear from you, I’m to call him. I’ve never seen him like this before Susan.” Kelly knew why Robert wanted the Cadillac back from Susan. It had the money, guns and drugs in it. He had let it slip when he was ranting and raving about her leaving him after all the things he had done for her.

“Are you going to call him?” Susan knew her friend Kelly. She feared her ex-husband. Kelly had once told her, that her husband had killed someone for taking something that was his. She hopes Kelly wouldn’t tell him, but then again, she didn’t care. There was no way he could track her. He didn’t know in what direction she would have gone or where she had gone. The only family she had lived down in North Carolina. So that could be the only place he could look for her at.

“Are you nuts? I would never tell the bastard you called me. Where are you?” Kelly knew she would never tell Robert where her friend was.

“I’m in Kentucky right now. I’m heading out towards Texas to live down there.” Susan was going to play it safe just in case. She hated lying to her friend, but she knew if Robert wanted to get the information from Kelly, he would beat her.

“Why are you going down to Texas?” Kelly couldn’t figure that out.

“Why not it’s the last place he would ever look for me. I wanted to get as far as possible away from him.” Susan could feel the tears sliding down her face.

“Good luck Susan. Call me if you need anything.” Kelly would miss her friend. She knew Susan wanted to get her life on track and get away from all the violence and drugs she was surrounded by.

“Bye Kelly.” Susan cancels the phone call and wipes the tears away with the back of her hand.

She starts the Cadillac up and starts driving down the highway. She plugs her cell phone into the charger and turns her music on. She stops at a McDonald after a few hours of driving to pick-up some dinner. It starts raining after a while and she turns the wipers on. Traffic had been heavy for a while, but it had lightened. She figures she would stay in Nebraska for a day or two to relax and see what work would be available in Montana. Maybe she should see if there was a rodeo or something going on. The gay rodeo she had gone to near Washington D.C. with her friend was fun. She smiles when she remembers the cowboys at that one chasing around a goat with a pair pantie and trying to stick them on the goat. It had been funny. She had fun that day watching the cowboys and cowgirls.

She listens to the music from her mp3 player and enjoyed the peacefulness the night brought as she drove. She wouldn’t have mind seeing what the places she passed looked like during the day time, but she had slept half the day away and didn’t want to stick around at the rest stop any longer. She hopes she is doing the right thing. The only thing she had on her now was the money she had hide from her husband and the Cadillac. She notices that the gas gauge on the dash was getting real low. She pulls off the interstate and heads towards the gas station she had spotted. The place looked nice and clean. She pulls up to the pumps and goes inside to pay the cashier and to pick up a few snacks to help keep her awake. She notices that there was a middle age woman behind the counter.

When Susan goes up to pay for her purchases the woman looks at her.

“What happened sweetie?” as she reaches for the items Susan had placed on the counter to ring them up.

“My husband did. We had gotten into an argument and he started using me like his personal punching bag.” Susan knew she was going to be asked a lot about the way she looked.

“You’re married? You seem way too young to be married.” Betsy couldn’t believe the young girl in front of her was married.

Susan raises her hand and shows her the wedding ring around her finger.

“We got married back in May of this year. I thought he was the most wonderful guy I had ever met, and I believed the lies he told me. So, I got permission from my social worker to get marry. She was more than happy to get rid of me. The first few months were wonderful. He showered me with gifts and took me out every night and brought me nice clothes. It wasn’t till I told him I was pregnant that his attitude changed. I thought he would be happy to be a father, boy was I wrong. He got extremely mad at me and started punching me in my abdomen. I lost the baby I was carrying and then he started becoming more abusive towards me. I finally got sick of him and left him two days ago.” Susan takes a deep breath.

The woman behind the counter looks at Susan. She could tell she was telling the truth. The poor girl looked so beaten and abused.

“Where are you heading?” Betsy bags up the items she rung up.

“I thought I would make a fresh start out in Montana. I’ve always loved horses, open spaces and ranches. I’m not much for the type of weather Texas always gets. I know Montana gets cold weather, but I don’t care.” Susan notices how much money she owes and opens her purse up and pulls out the amount she needed.

“Well good luck sweetie. I hope you find the life you’re looking for.” Betsy accepts the cash from Susan.

“Me too ma’am I hope my life will be better.” Susan takes her purchases and heads out towards the Cadillac.

Once Susan pumps the gas, she gets into the Cadillac and heads back to the interstate. She turns her radio on, instead of her Mp3 player and listens to the songs playing on the radio. She notices that her husband has tried calling her again. She presses the voice mail and listens to the messages he left. She notices they start off all nice and sweet, saying he’ll never hit her again and that he loves her. Then the next message was basically a repeat of the first one. By the time she gets to the fife one, he starts becoming more abusive towards her and starts calling her names. When she listens to the last message, he accuses her of stealing his money, drugs and that when he finds her; he is going to kill her.

Susan pulls the Cadillac over off the road and turns her hazards on as she gets out and walks around towards the other side of the Cadillac. She opens the back-passenger door and starts opening the cargo spaces under the seats and such. She searches the Cadillac and finds his stash of drugs, guns and money. Now she knew why he didn’t want her to drive the Cadillac. She tosses the drugs out into the field behind her. She leaves the guns where they are. She’ll have to find a place to get rid of them. As for the money, she takes a few bills out and places them in her pocket and leaves the rest where it is. She walks back around to the driver door and gets in and drives off, turning her hazard lights off.

When Susan notices dawn approaching. She stops at a truck stop to grab some breakfast. The place looked busy. She had brought a change of clothes to change into. The truck stops she had stopped at had showers, so truckers and travelers could refresh themselves. She pays for the use of one of them and strips out of her clothes that she had been wearing for the past two days. She examines her body in the full-length mirror in the dressing room. She notices her body was covered in ugly bruises all up and down her body and legs. She wants to break down and start crying, but it wouldn’t do any good right now. She heads into the shower stall and takes a nice long shower. The clerk had told her, that she could use it as long as she needed to. Susan suspected that the clerk had seen her bruises on her neck. When Susan gets done with her shower, she dries off and dresses in the only clean pair of jeans she had left. She had forgotten that most of the clothes she had packed were dirty.

Susan heads towards the restaurant part of the truck stop and grabs herself some breakfast. She figures she should be able to find a hotel room by this afternoon, if she drives for a few more hours. She sits and examines the map she had picked up. She had seen an advertisement for a rodeo that was going to take place the last week of August. That meant it was only a few days away. She figures she could get to where it is taking place at in the next three days. She calls a nearby hotel to it and reserves a room for herself. If she continues to drive like she has been doing, she could be there in two days and she could sleep in the Cadillac and then go to the hotel room she just reserved. She figures that she could have fun at the rodeo. She finishes her breakfast and packs everything up and heads out.

Susan pulls into a nice motel once she arrives in Nebraska and gets a room for one whole day. She had to argue with the clerk and tell her that she was legally married and that she was on her way to be with her husband. She spun a tale that there was no way the clerk would be able to figure it out. She parks the Cadillac and heads into her motel room. She was too tired to see what was on television. She kicks her shoes off and crawls onto the bed. When her head hits the pillow, she was off to la la land.

When Susan wakes up again, it was eleven at night. She checks her cell phone and notice that her husband had tried to call her again. She really needed to get another cell phone. She heads into the bathroom and does her business. Her stomach rumbles. She checks the delivery menus to check and see who is still open and making deliveries were. She found a sub shop that was still open and order a foot long, onion rings and a two liter of Pepsi. She figures the Pepsi would come in handy on the road.

Susan goes back out to the Cadillac to grab her night gown out of the bag of clothes she had packed. She should find a laundry mat tomorrow and wash everything. She heads back into her room, after making sure the Cadillac was secure. She goes and takes a shower and by the time she comes out, there is a knocking sound at her door.

“One moment” She grabs a towel and wraps it around her body and grabs the money out of her purse.

She walks over to the door and looks through the peep hole and notice it was the delivery driver with her order. She smiles when she notices it was a girl.

Susan opens the door “Hi. I guess that order is for me?”

Carol was surprised when the door opens. She had heard movement behind the door, but figure they would be a little longer.

The woman standing in front of her looked young and was wearing a towel wrapped around her body. She notices the bruising on the girl’s face and neck. There was even bruising on her shoulders.

“Yes Ma’am. You must be Susan Hensworth?” Carol gives the young girl a friendly smile.

“Yep, how much do I owe you?” Susan had grabbed a twenty out of her purse.

“Ten fifty ma’am” Carol hands the bag with the food and drink to Susan.

Susan hands the twenty she had been holding to Carol. She had notice the girls name on her name badge.

Carol looks at the twenty-dollar bill. She reaches into her pocket to get the change.

Susan notices what Carol was about to do “keep the change as a tip. Thanks.”

“Thank you ma’am” Carol couldn’t believe it. This was the best tip she has had all night.

“You’re welcome and be safe.” Susan waits till Carol gets back into her car, before shutting the door and sitting down on the bed to enjoy her late-night dinner.

She pulls her map out and looks at it. She locates where she is now and where she needs to be in two days. If she spends tomorrow here in Nebraska and leaves first thing on Saturday, she should be able to arrive late Sunday evening and check into her hotel room on Monday morning. She takes a bite of her sub. Susan finishes her sub and onion rings off. Just as she is throwing the containers away, her phone starts ring again. She picks it up and notices that it was her father calling her. She and her father have never been close. He was an alcoholic and a bastard. She mutes it and goes to the bathroom to relieve her bladder. When she comes back out of the bathroom, her phone starts ring again.
She checks the number again and notices it was her father calling her. She sighs as she answers it.

“Hello!” Susan was looking at herself in the mirror.

“YOU BITCH! I WANT MY CAR AND DRUGS!”

“Well, you’re going to have to go to the junkyard and get them and the car, if it hasn’t been crushed yet.” Susan had held the phone away from her ear when she heard the screaming coming through the phone. She wasn’t going to tell him that she still had the car or what she did to his drugs.

“YOU BITCH!” Robert was pissed at his wife.

“Well, if you hadn’t paid such a low price for the Cadillac, you could have gotten a better car. The engine blew up and it had to be towed off the interstate. As for your drugs, I have no idea where you hid them. You never trusted me with that.” Susan knew this was going to piss him off.

“I AM GOING TO KILL YOU. MY DRUGS WERE IN THE CADILLAC WITH ALL THE MONEY.” Robert was fuming and wondering how he was going to get out of this mess.

“Well, the junkyard has the Cadillac now. I don’t recall which one it had been sent too. The State trooper that had stopped to help me was distracted by the bruises I had on my face and neck. He asked me who did it and I told him you did. They have said they will be issuing a warrant for your arrest Robert.” Susan looks out at the Cadillac and smiles.

“I’LL KILL YOU, BEFORE I’M SENT TO JAIL.” Robert would kill his bitch of a wife. After all he has done for her this is the way she is repaying him.

“I would be a little careful about what you say on the cell phone Robert. I’m standing a foot away from the State Trooper that stopped to help me here in Texas.” She smiles when she says this. She knew this was going to piss him off.

“YOU BETTER HOPE I NEVER CATCH YOU HERE IN VIRGINIA AGAIN, BITCH. BECAUSE, I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF” Robert had to come up with some way to get the money to pay his supplier, because if he didn’t, he would be dead by the end of the week.

“Oh! I’m not planning on coming back, but you should be receiving my divorce papers by the end of next month.” As soon as Susan could, she was going to file for divorce.

She hangs up on Robert before he could reply. She was going to need to get a new phone. She will worry about that later. She pops two more pills into her mouth and lies down on the bed with the tv playing. She slowly falls asleep and falls into a deep slumber. She doesn’t dream at all that night.