On the other end of the line, my parents clearly stalled for a second.
Mom asked me, “It's pouring out there, so what are you still doing outside? Get home now and bring my potted plants in for me.”
Dad got worked up too.
“My chess set can't get rained on. Hurry back and put it away.”
My brother was even more frantic.
“Sis, where'd you run off to when you should be home?”
“My computer's right by the window.”
“If nobody closes it,”
“my computer's going to get ruined by the rain.”
Listening to all their complaints,
I said calmly, “I don't want to sit at home being a freeloader.”
The line went quiet for a few seconds.
Mom asked, “You... heard what we said?”
Just two days earlier,
my parents had brought me up while talking in the living room.
On one hand they were praising my brother for being so capable.
Barely a few days into the job, and his manager was already praising him.
On the other hand they were putting me down.
Good grades, and yet there I was at home sponging off them, a freeloader.
“Are you mad at your mom and dad?”
Dad asked me.
“No.”
“It's just that I've graduated too, and my brother's working now. I can't stay home doing nothing forever.”
My brother asked me, curious, “Sis, did you find a job?”
I gave a soft ‘mm.’
“Congrats, then.”
“Can you take the day off and go back to close the window for me?”
“That computer's the new one Mom and Dad set up for me.”
“It's super expensive.”
He'd always say ‘do it for me,’ and I never once refused.
But this time,
I refused without hesitation.
“Sorry, can't help you.”
“Laurel Pruitt, how much can that dead-end job of yours even pay in a month? Don't make me cuss you out. Take a day off and get back there, or just quit, either way.”
Dad's tone turned sharp.
“Have fun, all of you.”
I hung up on the spot.
A little while later,
the phone rang again, ringing like it was screaming for my life.
I turned it off.
By then I was already on a plane headed two thousand miles away.
I hadn't said goodbye to anyone.
And I hadn't told a soul where I was going.
The next day.
My parents and brother got home.
The potted plants were dead, the chess set was ruined, and the computer was broken too.
Their mouths never stopped, all curses and complaints.
“When your sister gets home from work,”
“I'm going to chew her out for good!”
My brother's eyes went red. “I'm yelling at her too. My computer was so nice and now it's wrecked. I'm furious!”
By night, twelve midnight.
Their daughter still hadn't come home.
And that was when
my brother cried out, “Mom, Dad, stop waiting. Sis isn't coming back.”
“What do you mean?”
“She took all her luggage.”
“And she left a letter.”
Once they'd read what was in the letter,
the three of them were dumbfounded.
“What is this supposed to mean? She didn't say where she's going.”
“Just that she'll be gone three to five years?”
“And something about how this family doesn't need her.”
“But some place out there really needs her.”
“It's honestly a joke.”
“A bookworm who can't do anything but study.”
“What's she acting out for when everything was fine?”
