run away

I finally made a table of contents page: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/

***

This story isn’t about revenge,

remember?

So I’m done

writing about my mother.

Needless to say,

in real life,

dragons don’t come to help out

lonely little girls.

In real life,

it takes

a potion

that almost melts your leg off

to decide to run away.

I didn’t scream

(though I thought

it was burning my bone out)

so she wouldn’t put me to sleep

with the smoke

and I could get out

as soon as she went into her potions shack

to change up the ingredients

to test it again–

while she puttered,

I snuck out the back door

and hobbled through town

and didn’t scratch the rashes on my shoulders

from the potions she’d tested out first

so they wouldn’t bleed through my sleeves,

and I stole the first little cart I saw

(sorry to that farmer)

and took it into the hills,

resting my burned leg inside

and pushing myself up rocky slopes with my other

then riding down

the bumpy backsides,

hoping I didn’t tip over

or that the insides of my leg

wouldn’t spurt out

like a melted volcano–

past the third hill,

up the fourth

I did scream

finally

but didn’t stop climbing for long enough

to catch my breath,

I kept going

in a blind haze

of pain

the phrase

must get away

get away

must get a-a–aw-m-m-mus-must g-g

away

away AWAY

blanketing all else in my brain

and I kept going

through black spots

falling through my vision

and dizziness shaking my position

and my tongue turning fuzzy

with hot thirst

until the gray day

faded to pitch black

then I collapsed by a hill

cool to the touch

and my cart became both pillow and blanket

and my good leg

almost hurt worse

than the burned and bleeding one

from all the pushing myself up hills

and I’d sweat through

my clothes

and started bleeding,

probably,

given the way the sleeves stuck to me

like scales

even though I’d wanted to avoid that

and I dropped to sleep

not knowing

if I’d live until morning

but happy knowing at least I’d

die free.

***

find my published book here