The Run Away

His young mind had been wandering for minutes, yet those minutes seemed like hours. His imagination ran wild with ideas, ideas that would not be put into action that day. He was very limited in his decisions; he was trapped in that space which seemed like a tiny box. He was stuck, he couldn't escape, what was he to do? He wanted to run free, to go outside and play, but mommy and daddy were busy.

"Supper will be ready in 15 minutes!" His mother said as she carefully placed the pie crust in the moulding. Her long, delicate fingers caressed the pie in a way that was so natural, you would know from watching the tall thin woman, with long brown hair and mysterious brown eyes that she was very familiar with the act of making pie crust.

This sentence brought the little blond hair, blue eyed boy back to reality. The reality was that he barely heard a word she said. He shook his head, sending his nicely coiffed hair into a frenzy. Wiped his eyes, almost as though he had just woke up; and a thought occurred to him, maybe he could buy some time before going to dinner by thinking up something clever to say. He may not have wanted to go sit down for dinner, but the aroma of the freshly baked meat pie was lingering in the air, and he was very hungry.

"Go wash up Colin" said his mother impatiently, since she wasn't used to her son being so inattentive. Since he was born, they had raised him to be polite, and respectful to his elders, two things that came very natural for him. He had a sweetness about him that could make just about anybody fall in love with the innocent boy.

"But mom, I'm trying to invent a new type of bike" That was his clever idea to get out of dinner. Would it work? He thought. There was a battle going on between his stomach and his mind. His mind was telling him that he wanted to play for a while longer, and his stomach was telling him that he should eat. It would be the choice of his parents' next words which would decide whether he played or ate.

"You can do that after dinner; don't give your mother a hard time. I'll help you with your bike ideas later, how about that?" Said his father; a tall strong man, with blond hair, and big blue eyes that added a certain delicateness to his features. He had noticed that Colin was giving his mother a hard time, so he decided to intervene.

"Ok." That was all he needed to hear in order to send him running into the bathroom. His little legs seemed to be going faster then his body would allow, yet he made it to the bathroom safely. He had accepted the choice that his parent's made, and was prepared to eat dinner.

After washing up, Colin decided to call up his friend Mike. He peeked into his mothers' phonebook, saw the name Susan which happened to be Mike's mother's name, and dialled. After ringing three times, a woman with a thick southern accent answered the phone.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded very sweet, almost like his mother's voice, which made him very comfortable talking to her.

"Hi is Mike there?" he asked with an excited tone to his voice.

"Sarry hun, y'ave the wrong numba." she said while twirling the telephone line in her fingers.

"No, I dialled the right number, I know it." His little 7 year old voice began to show some signs of confusion.

"Sarry honey, there's no one with that name who lives hea." she said; her voice was still very calm.

"Is this Susan?" he asked, thinking that that question would be the solution to his problems, because then he would know if he dialled the right number or not.

"Naw ma name's Barbara." she answered very patiently.

"Oh, wait one second." Colin then ran to the kitchen knowing that his mom would have the answer to his question. He knew that it was her number book, and that she knew everyone who was in it, there fore she would know who he was talking to.

"Mom, who do you know with the name Barbara?" he asked with a very soft voice, almost as if he was afraid of what she would say next.

"I don't know darling, I don't have any friends named Barbara. Why are you asking?" she asked while removing a meat pie from the large wood burning oven.

"Well I wanted to call Mike, but for some reason I dialled the wrong number and now I'm talking to a woman named Barbara." he answered very clearly, while twirling his finger in his hair.

She then realized that her mother, who she had not talked to since she ran away from home when she was twelve's' phone number was situated underneath Mike's phone number, and her mother's name was Barbara.

"It's alright, just apologize for bothering her and hang up" she ordered in a very calm manner, making sure not to rise any suspicion from he curious son.

"Ok"

He slowly returned to the phone and apologized to the old woman, but before he could take action and hang up the phone, she interrupted him.

"Was that yo motha in the background darlin?" she asked very curiously, almost desperately.

"Yes" he answered with absolutely no idea why she asked that question.

"I know that voice" she said very firmly.

"Well your number is in her phonebook, you might have talked to her before" he answered, thinking that he knew what he was talking about, and that he was really smart for thinking of that.

"What's yo Mom's name sweetie?" She asked, nearly convinced that she knew what he would say next.

"Leanne" he stated.

It was then that the old woman realized that she was talking to her daughter's son.

"Can I talk to yo mom?" she asked, with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Yes you may"

He returned to the kitchen and told his mother that Barbara wanted to talk to her. She picked up the phone hesitantly.

"Hello?" she said with fear in her voice, she was regretting answering the phone.

"Hi" answered her mother with subtle excitement in her