Chapter 5 - Breaking Free

Junior High rolled into Senior High and with each passing year, Alice took on more responsibilities from her mother. She got a job, started buying her own clothes and even gave Mom money to help with the groceries. In between all of these things, she even found time to start liking boys. Only she didn’t like the type of boys that were the kind to treat a girl right. The bad boys were the ones that caught her eye.
Her first love was tall, dark and handsome. He had an old Cadillac that he had beefed up the engine on and he liked to drive it really fast. She loved the speed. She would roll down the window and let the wind whip her hair all around so that she looked like a banshee by the time they got anywhere. Steve didn’t mind. He liked the tousled look.

While Alice and Steve were busy being young and wild, there were other guys that tried without success to woo Alice away from Steve. These guys were reliable, dependable, came from good homes and were B-O-R-I-N-G! She didn’t want anything to do with any of them. She wasn’t going to be the type of girl that settled down, squeezed out a bunch of babies and wasted away at home while her husband did whatever he wanted. She saw what that did to her mother and she wasn’t having any part of it.

Steve wooed her with his talks about where they would go and what they would do when high school was over. They would travel, see the world, be carefree. All of the things that Alice thought she wanted.

One day her Mom came in to have a talk with Alice. It seems that she didn’t like for her to spend so much time with a guy like Steve. Mom went on and on about the perils of dating that kind of guy and where it would end up. Alice argued with her mom. How could SHE know what would happen with Steve? He was a great guy and would never do all of the things Mom said he would.

Mom didn’t give up after that one talk. Each week she confronted Alice with another talk. Each week she foretold of the perils that were waiting around the corner. Alice started avoiding her mother. Working later and spending more time with Steve. Exactly the opposite effect that her mother was hoping for.

She was spending so much time with Steve, he asked if she would consider moving in with him and his family. Especially as Alice’s mother was being so unreasonable and confrontational. Steve’s parents knew of Alice’s history and her troubles and thinking they could provide a more stable environment for her, they offered as well for Alice to come live with them. She decided that if everyone thought that was the right thing to do, then that must be the right thing to do.

That weekend Alice confronted her mother. She was tired of doing all of the work, tired of providing for her mother and tired of having all of the responsibilities. She didn’t give her Mom time to even put up a fight. Out the door she went with her few meager belongings. Away into Steve’s waiting car and whisked off into the night.

Alice knew it would break her mother’s heart, but she just couldn’t stay anymore. She felt so liberated, so free. For a fleeting moment she felt like a deer staring at an oncoming car, but that passed quickly.