ALL NOVEL Martha Flashback 2
Martha - 5 Years Ago
Things did not go according to plan.
The two lesbians ended up sleeping through the alarm. That wouldn’t have been the end of their plan, if it wasn’t for the fact that Sarah’s parents decided to check on their daughter in the morning. Needless to say, they were very displeased by finding their daughter in bed snuggling with another girl.
Martha was not offered breakfast. She was, fortunately, afforded the dignity of getting dressed before getting kicked out of their house. Small mercies.
Dejectedly, Martha made her way home alone. About halfway there, she got a text from Sarah’s secret phone number on Martha’s own secret phone.
This was something the two girls had done around Spring break. Sarah’s parents had taken her phone for some infraction or another. Nothing that was actually bad unless you were a conservative dickwad who saw kids as subhuman.
Martha fished her secret phone out of her pocket.
Sarah <3: parents have taken my phone and laptop. They said I’m grounded
Martha typed out a response.
Martha: let’s stick to the plan
Sarah <3: how? My parents locked me in my room!
Martha bit her lip.
Martha: is it one of those doors with the handle lock
Sarah <3: yeah, why?
Martha: can you twist it from the inside? Like with a knife or something
Martha continued making her way home. She reached Brock Street when her phone pinged again.
Sarah <3: yeah, I can, actually. I’ll wait for my parents to head out or go to bed, then sneak out. Probably grab my laptop too. Meet u @ the bus terminal?
Martha: k seeya then
Martha: 💋
Before long, Martha reached home. As she expected, her dad was waiting for her.
“I got a very interesting phone call from the Jacksons just now,” he said. “You wouldn’t happen to know what they said, young lady?”
Martha sighed. Here we go…
Martha only paid enough attention to her dad’s lecture to make him believe she was paying full attention. He’d already taken her laptop and stuck it in his own closet. Martha would have to grab that when she left. He demanded she hand over her phone. Martha carefully slipped out the non-secret phone, handing it over to him. After that, she wasn’t even given breakfast, just sent straight to her room. She heard the lock twist shut.
Martha laid down on her bed.
Now, time to wait.
Actually, no. Not time to wait.
Martha grabbed her school backpack and dumped out her schoolbooks. She wouldn’t be needing them again. She started carefully and quietly opening drawers and shoving as many clothes as she could fit in her bag. She tried to leave as much room as she could for her laptop, throwing in a few other keepsakes — most especially, the little bracelet Sarah had made for her back in October.
Now it was time to wait. Sarah hid the bag on the other side of her bed in case her dad came back.
Her purse was more or less all ready to go. She’d already stuffed it with her wallet, which had her debit card, her health card and driver’s license, as well as a few hundred dollars in cash. In addition, she had her house key, which she probably would never need again — although, she wanted to keep the keychain — a bit of makeup, a half-finished pack of gum, some pepper spray (that her dad definitely didn’t know about), and a pair of sunglasses.
Finally, after several hours, her dad left the house. He got in his pickup truck and drove off.
Martha had to act quickly now. She had no idea how long her dad would be away. She sprang into action. She slung her purse over her shoulder and grabbed her backpack. She made her way over to the door.
Fortunately, it was super easy to unlock from the inside. The way it locked was by turning a little tab on one side of the handle that locked it up, preventing it from turning. The other side, while not having the little tab, had a helpful safety feature. Due to the possibility that someone may need to open the door from the “wrong” side during an emergency, the mechanism had a second way to turn it on the opposite side to the first. This didn’t have a tab one could easily grip, but it did have a little slit that one could slip a screwdriver or something else with a flat enough surface into to get enough leverage to turn the mechanism.
And, very fortunately, Martha was already prepared for this. She had a screwdriver she’d nicked from the garage hidden in one of her desk drawers. Some fumbling and a few curses later, and Martha was free!
She slipped into her dad’s room, opening up the closet and carefully pulling out her laptop, slipping it into her bag.
She made her way downstairs. She was about to leave when her stomach growled at her.
On the one hand, she could just grab something from Timmy’s, on the other hand… well, she wouldn’t have to pay for any of the food in the kitchen here.
Her mind made up, Martha made her way into the kitchen. She flung open the fridge, grabbing as much as she could carry. An apple, some bread, which she put in the toaster for around a minute, followed by quickly buttering them. She slipped the food into a plastic baggy and put that in the top of her backpack. With all of that, Martha was about to head out the front door, when she realised her father’s truck was pulling back into the driveway. She froze, but as the truck’s driver’s side door slammed, she was jolted into action. She ran for the back door of the house, opening it and quietly closing it behind herself. She crept around to the front of the house, trying to be careful to make as little noise as possible.
And then things went wrong again. Her dad spotted her.
“Martha?” He said in a confused voice. But his face quickly morphed to anger. “What the hell are you doing?”
Martha didn’t waste any time retorting. She took off running, but she was weighed down by her bag. Her dad easily caught up to her.
“Where do you think you're going, young lady?” Her dad said.
But, before he could grab her, Martha had already shoved her hand into her purse. She pulled out the pepper spray, spraying it directly into her dad’s face. Martha started running again, hoping she bought herself just enough time to escape.
Once she reached Brock Street, she relaxed. She slowed to a normal walking pace, and started heading east towards the centre of town. She fished her secret — now only — phone out of her pocket, then sent a quick text to Sarah.
Martha: I’m out. Dad nearly caught me. Heading to bus stop now
Martha didn’t have to wait very long at the bus stop. She actually only just finished up her toast and apple before she got a text back from Sarah.
Sarah <3: Parents finally headed out. I grabbed a snack on the way out. Seeya soon
Another twenty minutes later, Sarah was at the bus station.
“Martha!” Sarah shouted.
Sarah perked up at the sight of her girlfriend. She stood up and ran over to Sarah, pulling her into a bearhug. “Hey, Sarah.”
“Come on,” Martha said. “Bus leaves in ten minutes.”
The girls bought tickets to get them as far as Union station in Toronto, and were able to make it on the bus a minute before the doors closed.
As the buildings in town gave way to forests and farms, the girls breathed a sigh of relief.
“We made it,” Sarah said, an elated smile on her face.
Martha, however, was not quite as relieved. “I’m worried.”
“About your brother?”
Martha nodded. “What if my dad gets it in his head that he helped me or something?”
Sarah didn’t have a response for that.
