63 Days

Inside the cabin, the air was musty. A layer of dust coated the back of the couch that was covered by a Native American printed throw blanket made of scratchy looking wool. There was a small kitchen that was attached to the family room, and off of that was a hallway with a bathroom and 2 bedrooms. In each one were piles of shoes, clothes, various items that might have belonged to the other students that were still out in the field.

An older woman, perhaps in her 60’s approached us. She had short grey hair and her mouth was a tiny little red bow, and when she spoke to us, she sounded like any old sweet grandmother you’d meet on any given day in the park.

“I’m Smiling Otter” she said. “I’m going to make sure you guys are good until we get back out to the field. Tonight you will all sleep in between counselors on the floor, so that you’re surrounded on either side by one of the staff members. Now, I want you to eat a peanut butter sandwich because we can’t use the fireplace in here to cook your rice and oats. I’m also going to give you a baggie of raisins. Don’t tell a soul or they’ll be the last raisins you see for months. Now go on, get yourself a sandwich then come lay down here and write in your journals til its dark.”

She walked into the back room and Natalie leaned over to me and said “She pulled up in a Honda Civic. I saw her. She put her keys on that dresser in the first bedroom on the right. Tonight, when they’re all sleeping, you get them somehow, and I’ll make sure that we aren’t followed once we get outta here, ok?”

I nodded in agreement, and we went about our way, writing in our journals, eating sandwiches, and thinking nervously about what we were about to attempt. Forrest was there with us. I asked him if he wanted to get out with us. He told me he didn’t want to get in trouble, and besides, if he stayed in the program, he’d get a new Mercedes S Class when he got out. I understood this, and I asked him if he’d be willing to be payed in raisins and all the rest of our rations if he’d do something for us. I told him that since we were in Central Utah, when we escaped we’d have to either go north to Salt Lake City or south to Las Vegas on I-15. I knew we’d be going to Las Vegas, as I had friends there and knew my way around there since it was my hometown, but I asked Forrest if he’d mind telling them he overheard us saying that Las Vegas was too obvious, and that we’d said that Salt Lake City was our destination spot. This way, he’d look like he was assisting the staff with our capture, but he’d also be buying us some time in the mean time. He was perfectly fine doing this for us, and Natalie and I handed over all of our extra food to him. He rehearsed his lines to us, all of us pretending to be reading passages of our journals to eachother, we listened until we thought he was ready, and when it got dark, we all layed down inbetween counselors and waited til it was still enough to go.

I stared at the ceiling and layed in the silence as the night crept into the cabin. The counselor next to me who was a young male, maybe 22 put his hand over on my inner thigh, under my blanket. I froze in silence as I felt him creep closer and closer to what I hoped he wouldn’t reach and finally, he got there. I was frozen both in fear of this man, and in fear of what we’d planned but I needed this guy to get to sleep so we could make our escape. He touched me lightly, stroking with his finger until I could tell that he was also touching himself next to me. I felt a hot tear go down the side of my cheek, and I just bit my lip waiting for it to be over. Who knows how much time went by, but eventually, he dropped his hand from me, rolled to the side, and within minutes, gentle snores were coming out of him as well as the other counselors in the room.

“Go.” Natalie spoke this in near silence. “…..go, its midnight…” she repeated. I started to sit up when I saw her over by the phone cord on the wall. She had a knife that she’d gotten from the drawer and she was cutting the cord in two. I was shocked but it was then I realized that we were really doing this, and there was no turning back now.

I crept into the back room, stuck my hands over the keys that were ontop of the dresser, slid them gently so that they wouldn’t make any noise, and when they were in my hands, I realized one problem. They had our shoes. There was 3 feet of snow outside and I had no shoes. They were locked in the Bronco. I glanced down and saw Smiling Otter’s Isotoner slippers, and I slipped them on as I tiptoed out to the front door. I saw that it was slightly open and as I opened it to let myself out, there was a small creak. Just then, Forrest rolled over to try to distract the sleeping counselors from the door, making it seem as though he had just disturbed the rickety floor with his rolling over and I shot him a look in the moonlight of thanks. He just looked at me blankly, and then I saw a tiny smile come over his face.

“Hurry!” he mouthed. “GO!”

I shut the door behind me just in time to see Nat toss me a screwdriver. “Get the tires, something! Get the tires!”

I’d never popped tires before, but when you’re running for your life, you’d be surprised what you can do. I pulled my hand back and when I brought it down, the screwdriver went into those big tires on that Bronco and then on the Jeep like it was nothing. A huge gasp of air was released, and I ran to the next one, and then the next one. It only took probably 30 seconds, but I felt like I was on fire. Time was racing, and I handed the keys to Natalie just as she rounded the corner from the shed out back with a box/medical kit and a wallet. She’d lifted it from one of the sleeping counselors, and the next thing I knew, we were starting this little Honda up, and racing down the road.

“GO GO GO!” I yelled. “Shit. Holy crap! Oh shit…oh shit!!!” I was in shock. Natalie was yelling at me “Where do I go???!?!?! Where do I go?!?!?!” and I told her to just follow the moon. It was in the west, and we needed to go west. Thank God for Girl Scouts and my compass/celestial navigation skills I’d learned there.

We headed down the road towards what was called Hell’s Backbone. It was a single icy one lane road that wound around and back and forth, perched ontop of a steep hill…for MILES. I knew it was coming, but I also knew that we were only getting out by the grace of God, and if He’d gotten us this far, He’d get us the rest of the way. Natalie discovered we didn’t have 4th gear, so we were shifting from 3rd to 5th without an interruption. Things were flying out of control, but even then, as we approached the steep cliffs, I stared wild eyed out the window into the snowy bright wilderness and I knew that this was all happening for a reason. This adventure was out of our hands, we were just passengers….and all I could do was hang on for dear life…