Midnight Train

Chapter 9

"What did you do?" Bex looks straight at her father.

"What do you think I did? I picked her up!" James defends himself. Though he sheepishly adds, "Though, I had to get off the train first."

I start chuckling as he rubs the back of his neck.

"As soon as my knight in shining armor, or should I say my knight in fresh Unspeakable merch, found out I had run away again, he promised to come pick me up."

James is laughing, along with the rest of my children, but my knight managed to piece a phrase together between laughs. I think he said "I didn't want to leave you alone." Soon I'm shaking my head at their behavior before I start laughing myself.

After we all calm down, I continue with the story. "Your Dad told me to stay out of sight of the road, just in case any cops were looking for me. After I told my knight where I was, he agreed to save his damsel in distress. I'm glad I did because a cop car drove past, stopping for several minutes to search the woods. That drove me back more, but I was always careful to stay facing the road so I wouldn't get lost. When the cops started walking away, I waited for a count of ten before creeping forward. I stayed back past the tree line until I saw your Dad pull up. When he did, I actually scared him because I came out of the woods in the middle of the night covered in leaves. After plucking leaves off my clothes and out of my hair, I climbed into his car."

"I remember this like it was yesterday," James begins, getting very sentimental. "I also remembered that I tried to convince you to go back home." His face drops, as well as his voice. A stray tear starts tracing a path down his face.

"Honey, it's not your fault you didn't know about my parents. No one ever knew." I reach over and wipe the tear away before rearing that hand on his cheek.

"What do you mean?" Sam speaks again, sleep creeping back into his voice.

"When I got in the car, my knight in shining armor almost turned into a man in reflective tin foil. He was going to take me back to my house because my parents must be worried. I stopped him there by breaking down in tears. I recall James tried to comfort me with a hug, but the center console got in the way. Through tears, I tried to tell him what happened. I couldn't get a word out so I pulled out my phone and played what I had recorded. After having to relive those awful events again, we had to figure out what we were going to do."

"I invited you back to the island house," James takes over. "While we drove, I decided your Mom should stay there with Uncles Nathan, Gabe, Cedrick, and Jordan, and, well, me. It was dangerous for her to go back to her parents so she needed to go to court to get away from them. After awhile, we pulled into the winding driveway that led to the island house. I helped her out of the car and led her up to the door."

'"I was so confused as to why I was there. I never thought I was going to see, much less visit the place that filmed so many of my favorite vlogs."

"When I knocked on the door, Uncle Nathan walked up to the door. The look on his face was priceless."

"I still probably still had leaves in my hair, as well as leaves and mud clinging to my clothes. Not to mention dawn was just breaking. I honestly don't want to know what he thought, and I don't think I'll ever want to know." I chuckle at the memory.

James continues, "Despite that, he let us in. I kept a hand on your Mom's arm to help guide her through the house. I showed her to the room I normally stayed in, and, more importantly, the adjoining bathroom."

"I desperately needed a shower," I laughed. "I shut the door once your Dad left and jumped in. Though, I should have locked the door. While I was in the shower, I had a rude interruption by, who I assume, was a cleaning lady. The scream I made, though, was enough to wake the dead. Or draw everyone in the noise to my current location. The lady ran out and everyone else ran in. When I heard the pounding of feet, I grabbed a towel and threw it around myself. Insert five people standing around me in a shower in a towel in a house I had only ever seen on YouTube. Not to mention I had just run away from home after being slapped across the face. What a great way to start the day."

The kids, as well as James and I, were dying of laughter.

"That was not what I was expecting," James says once he can catch his breath.

"You think I was expecting it?" I say in between laughs.

After awhile, we all calm down, albeit red-faced.

"After I had such a scare, and everyone left the bathroom, I finished my shower. As I was drying off, I heard a knock on the door, followed by someone saying they were leaving me a change of clothes just outside the door. When I heard footsteps walking away, I opened the door and reached my arm out. Finally my hand landed on the clothes and I pulled them inside the bathroom. You can probably guess what it was..." I stop talking, waiting for the inevitable.

"Unspeakable merch!" my kids all chorus together.

"Yep. I stayed the rest of the day there, trying to get a court date as.soon as possible. It took pretty much the entire day, but I got a date set up for a week from tomorrow. Until then, I had to stay away from my parents."