RUN AWAY LIFE STORY

I WON'T BE BACK FOR MANY A DAY

It is a very scarey thing for a young boy to be heading out into the world on his own. Especially when he has been incarcerated in an orphanage for most of his young life. Though only eight years old I still had a lot of smarts about myself. At least enough smarts to try and survive on my own out on the streets of Jacksonville, Florida.

Even though I was somewhat withdrawn I was a very aware little boy. I had learned very early in life what adults were capable of doing to young boys and girls if they didn't do exactly as they were told.

Out the second story window of the boy's dormitory I went. I quietly slid along the roof on my rearend making my way over to the large oak tree at the end of the porch. Then I climbed down to the ground. Slowly I tiptoed along the porch until I got to the azalea bushes and then I ran as fast as I could toward the large white gates located at the entrance of the orphanage.

It was rather cold and I was quite scared. This was the very first time I had ever ran away from the orphanage all by myself. I had no money, no food and no where to go. But all that really mattered to me now was going to get away from the beating and abuse that we children had to suffer, almost on a daily basis.

I stopped at the front gates and I turned around to see if anybody was coming after me. But no one was coming. I just stood there in the dark for a moment remembering a song which I had heard, just that evening, on the Ed Sullivan Show. Some black man named "Harry" somebody, or something like that singing: "I'm on my way for many a way. I won't be back for many a day. Da da da and Da da da and I'm going down to Kingston town",

I stood there for a moment singing that song very softly to myself. The song told me that there was a good place for me somewhere in the world. Some place far, far away from this orphanage.

I stood silently watching as the cars drove past. I stooped down hiding myself in the dark shadows of the pine trees and bushes which surrounded the front gates of the orphanage. The cold wind from the passing cars was hitting me. Making me shiver as they past.

Bravely I pulled myself together and I headed out the gates and down Spring Park Road. Now heading out into a world for the first time that I knew nothing about.

I walked for what seemed to be hours before I came to a large metal bridge that was painted silver.

"The Main Street Bridge." I said out loud to myself.

I raised my shirt collar and stuck my little hands into my pockets to try and keep myself warm. I leaned forward and placing one foot in front of the other I started walking up the steep incline of the bridge. Huffing and puffing I made my way to the center portion of the bridge before I stopped. I raised my head and I looked around at the beautiful City of Jacksonville, Florida. Oh, what a beautiful site it is to see thousands upon thousands of lights way off in the darkness. To see for the first time in my life hundreds upon hundreds of brightly lit red lights on the back of cars as they exited from the large bridge.

I looked at the faces of the people in the cars as they passed me by. Not a single one of them even realizing that I was standing there. I was just me. Just me all alone and a scared.

"Being out here in the world is no different than being in the orphanage," I thought to myself.

"There's really no body in the whole wide world who really cares about me. They don't even know that I'm alive" I said out loud.

I sat down on the sidewalk of the bridge and began to cry.

"Are you ok?" said a strange voice coming from behind me.

I jumped up and placed my back against the metal railing of the bridge and I just stood there shaking.

"Are you ok?" The man asked again.

"Yes Sir. I'm just a little bit cold and tired, Sir." I told him.

"Let's get off this cold bridge and go some place where it is warm," said the man.

We walked for several miles just talking with one another. Then we walked into a little coffee shop restaurant where the man bought me a hamburger and a coke. He told me that he was a school teacher and that I should not be out on the streets all alone at night because it was very dangerous, especially for young kids.

While we were eating I told him that I was from the orphanage and that I had run away because they beat us all the time. He invited me to come to his apartment for the night so that we could talk and be friends. He even let me take a good hot bath in a real bathtub for the very first time in my life. Then he told me that I could spend the night.

We said a prayer together and I asked God if I could stay and live with him forever and ever.

After I had fallen asleep I suddenly awoke when I felt the bed jerk. There was my friend Bill standing at the foot of the bed. He had no clothes on whatsoever.

He made me promise him on my heart that I would never tell anyone about what he did to me that night. After he went to sleep I got up, real quiet like, and I dressed myself. Then I snuck out of the apartment house. In the cold and the darkness I walked back across the great big metal bridge and back into the gates of the orphanage. I stopped for just a moment and I started to cry. I turned around and I looked back at the outside world through orphanage fence. Softly I started singing to myself: "I'm on my way for many a way. I won't be back for many a day. Da da da and Da da da I'm never goin' back to Kingston town."