The Rise and Fall of Mary Colley

Chapter 3

Saturday May 31st, 1975. 10:15 AM

When I walk into my living room with my duffle bag, Lydia is on the couch reading. "Where are you going?" She asks.
"To Lisa's." I reply.
"No you're not."
"Okay." I reply, heading towards the door. I didn't have time to have a conversation.
"Mary," she says, like a child begging for something, "please stay safe." I giggle at this and respond "I will. I promise. Bye." "Goodbye" she says back.
Lydia cares a lot about me.
I head out the front door. I walk out of my neighborhood and about three quarter miles out on the road. Once I get a little bit tired I stop. It's hot outside, so I wore hot pants, a red halter top, and a sun hat. I stick out my thumb and begin to wait for a nice person to pull over. It takes a little less than 10 minutes for a middle aged man to pull over. He has a toddler son in the back. "Need a ride?" He asks with a grin on his face. I try not to get into cars unless there's a woman already in there, but I decided to take my chances. "Sure do. Where ya heading?" I ask, smiling.
"Just driving about 15 miles south, to meet someone." He says.
"Great. You can drop me off when you get there if you don't mind?" I say.
"Alright, get in."
I obey, getting into the passenger seat and letting my bag sit on the ground, kind of on my legs. I turned around to face the child and said "Hey there." The child smiled at me. "That's my son, Daniel. My name's Ronald." The man said to me. "I'm Marcia." I told him. When hitching a ride, I never tell people my actual name. I'm a little bit paranoid. For the next 20 minutes, Ronald told me about his son, problems with his baby mama, and his hatred for the city. I told him about how I recently graduated and I'm trying to start a new life, away from the city that I also hate.
One of the biggest things I love about hitchhiking is the stories I get to create. I also love hearing the stories of the people who pick up strangers.
He pulled into a hotel parking lot and said "This is it. Bye, Marcia." I got out of his car and said "Bye Ronald. It was a pleasure meeting you. Bye Daniel!"
This is how it was for the next five hours. I'd stand on the road with my thumb out for little bit, meet different people, and then repeat. I'll admit, standing on the side of the road was a little bit boring but briefly spending time with all these people was a thrill. It usually didn't take long for people to pick me up.
I even had a nice religious couple buy me lunch. They said they were picking me up in order to save me from some creep who might pick me up. Then they preached to me a little and bought me lunch.
Then finally, I made it to San Diego.