On The Run: Part Two

Chapter Thirteen - "Searching For Yesterday"

Why? Who knows? Luck?

Seemingly not, because . . .

December 2007

She returned to the group home – still in Washington.

At this point, she was twelve years old. At the age when other young girls were starting to understand the birds and the bees, and what not to do, she was dealing with the harsh truth – no one wanted her.

January 2008

Alamosa, Colorado. Belinda and Horatio Matthews took her in as their foster child. It lasted three weeks. By the middle of February, she was back in the group home.

It was torturous to read, but a part of me felt like I deserved this pain; the immense pain it gave me to know I had done so much damage to somebody else’s life.

October 2008

Saint Paul, Minnesota. Cameron and Susan Holland became her foster parents. Until they were arrested a year and a half later for the cooking of crystal meth in their basement, with the intention to sell.

I paused and took a breath. There was no way I could show my father this. He’d blame himself. I could not let him blame himself. It was all me.

This was all me.

I looked in the rearview mirror; the Lincoln town car where Hal and Ritchie were sitting was still behind me. Did they really think they were being inconspicuous? In this neighborhood?

I couldn’t bring myself to look up and down the street, packed with meth-heads, whores and everything that you see at the beginning of a terribly plotted movie, where the protagonist decides to turn over a new leaf after meeting the convict who moves in next door.

I turned back to the folder.

April 2010

She was back at the group home – the branch in Minnesota.

December 2010

She got to spend Christmas with a family in Detroit, Michigan. Riley and Georgina White, a couple who was a little older, and thought they couldn’t have any children of their own.

Miracle – they did. At age 52. So, they kicked Chloe to the curb. Well, not literally.

At least, I hope not.

March 2011

She was back at the group home – in Massachusetts.

She was three months from turning sixteen, which probably wouldn’t be so sweet. Even if the home were in at least a reasonable condition, it still wouldn’t be all right.

April 2011

Toledo, Ohio. Thomas and Penny Cooper became her foster parents, along with three other kids. By the end of May 2011 when they couldn’t handle the stress that came with raising four children, they had two sent back to social services.

Chloe got the short end of the stick. It seemed to be happening quite a lot all her life.

July 2011

She barely spent a week at the group home in Pennsylvania before her luck changed.

For better or worse, I have no idea.

Late – July 2011

Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. Robert and Stephanie Palmer became the last foster parents she ever had. She lived there until August 2012.