ESCAPE PLAN

.02 -- KNOWING YOU

­­John B. did not like living with the Truetts. From what he saw over the past week, he was disgusted. The girls were, according to Marcus himself, wife material, as Diane 'trained' them in being a doting maid to him. John B. had insisted that he help clean up one night after dinner, and both of the girls stared at him, shocked. Marcus chuckled, explaining that it was women's work, and John B. should start getting ready for bed. When the teenager continued to insist, Marcus had had enough of the backtalk.

"Son, I'm not going to tell you again. Leave your plate on the table and go get ready for bed." He snapped, attempting to maintain a calm tone. John B. could see eight-year-old Sofya's eyes dart anxiously to her older sister, who clenched her jaw and looked down at the table. The two girls knew better than to speak out of turn, but John B. had yet to understand that rule. He looked between the two sisters, who did not meet his gaze, then silently stood up and walked out of the room. Before he could get too far, Marcus stood. "Boy," He called out, causing John B. to stop in his track. "You say, 'yes, sir.' Understand?" He grumbled.

"Yes, sir." John B. muttered through gritted teeth, then continued through the house and down the hall.

Each night, at 9:30 on the dot, he heard the deadbolt turn outside of his bedroom, keeping him locked in. On one of his first nights, after finding himself fighting off an anxiety attack, the boy attempted to pry the window open, hoping for an escape plan, but found that it had been painted shut.

On days that John B. had not conformed in the way Marcus expected, he would have to listen to the man yelling and scolding the older of the two sisters from down the hall. He heard him say frequently, "He is your responsibility! You need to get him in line!" as if John B. was a child, and Jolie was the person fostering him. She was just a girl, no older than him. The boy tried to keep himself in line, not wanting either of the sisters to be in trouble for his rebellious personality.

During the day, while Diane was in the office, and Marcus was either out or taking a nap, the three would always be assigned chores. It was mainly busy work, as the girls maintained a tidy house, but John B. took that time to get to know more about his foster sisters. Each day, he would gain another piece of the puzzle that was their life. It started simple, with favorites, but as the days turned to weeks, they found themselves falling short of topics to chat over, and began asking bigger questions. Sofya was not mature enough to handle the grittier topics, and Jolie continued to keep her guard up, so the conversations were filled with plenty of dead air.

John B. told the girls stories of the Outer Banks. Sofya was intrigued by the idea of surfing, having never met someone who partook in the activity she had only seen in movies, and loved to talk to him about the ocean.

"Jolie," Sofya had called from her spot on the floor, where she listened to John B. talk while he dusted the ceiling fan.

"Yeah?" The older sister called back, poking her head into the room.

"When you adopt me, can we go to John B's house at the beach?" Her sister asked, her big brown eyes staring inquisitively at her sister.

"Well," Jolie said, looking at the boy who stared back at her from atop a chair. "It depends." She said, leaving it at that, then turning to go back to cleaning the oven in the kitchen.

"On what?" The young girl asked, climbing to her feet, leaving the floor wax where she was sitting to chase after her sister.

"Yeah, on what?" John B. asked, stepping off the chair to follow the young girl.

Jolie sighed from the step stood she had been sitting on in front of the open over, then pulled the rubber gloves off of her hands and tossed them to the sink. Her clean hands moved to hold either side of her sister's face, and the identical pair of eyes stared into one another. John B. felt as if he was intruding on an intimate moment, but he was genuinely curious of the circumstances that made her unsure as to why she could not visit the Outer Banks.