Ride On

Chapter XXXI: She's Leaving Home

I hid in my bedroom most of the day. My siblings had come over to have a barbecue and I wanted to escape the comments before they had a chance to take form. 

"Weren't you wearing that the last time I was here? Have you even changed at all?"

"Hannah doesn't like boys, she would rather date a yeti."

"Look, it's corn on the slob!"

Engaging in conversation with them would only cause me to lash out and I would be the one getting in trouble. After all, if I didn't want to get poked fun at, I shouldn't be such an easy target.

Or at least, that's what I was taught. 

The barbecue ended up getting rained out. Thunderstorms were expected and my family ended up baking a casserole and talking in the living room. My bedroom wall was adjacent to them so I could pick up a few words here and there without meaning to. 

I heard about all the patients at the hospital my sister worked at. How terribly the nurses were treated and threatened by the parents. 

I heard about all the people my brother put under arrest. How crime rates had increased dramatically and how awful the world was despite Australia being just one part of it. 

I also heard about my dog sitting gig. How I was getting paid a lot of money to watch a poodle and how I would probably spend all the money on something dumb instead of an education. 

I tried university once.

I left after a year.

Writing research papers and solving calculus equations didn't seem to be the best route for me to become author. I didn't gain anything intellectually and it only served to remind me how useless I was in the academic realm. 

You can imagine how my family took that news. 

I would never be successful, I would never leave home, I would never amount to my siblings' worth. 

I heard them laughing at the time I passed out from the heat in a convenience store. Apparently it was all a plan by me to go back home like the hermit I am. 

Funny. I thought for sure it was heatstroke. 

I overheard my sister recalling a conversation she had with me. She took on a high pitched baby voice when she read my lines. I heard my brother snicker. 

Hilarious.

I heard them call my name in a hideously loud way, much like the way a farmer calls his pigs. 

I decided to buy a plane ticket to California.