My Disappearance

Chapter 3

Rose was with the Hausers for 6 days before she was placed in Perdell House. Perdell was a 20-bed facility and it was run like it was a boot camp. Everyone had to be up by 5 am and have their bed made, be showered and dressed before 6 for inspection of the sleeping area. Then it was breakfast time, followed by morning chores before school if it was a weekday. If you had a job you only had chores on your day off. Chores consisted of: cleaning the dining area, washing dishes, sweeping and mopping the sleeping area, laundry and bathroom duty. No one wanted bathroom duty because it entailed cleaning toilets. Rose always volunteered for bathroom duty because the other girls would fight over other chores and she got to work alone. After being there for two weeks, Rose got her first job in a restaurant downtown bussing tables. It didn't pay much but she didn't have any bills, so everything she made she saved. She was saving up to escape. When she wasn't working she studied for her exit exam so she could graduate early and work full time. Rose made a few friends from work and a few from Perdell. Rose wasn't used to having friends she wasn't allowed to before. Her mother had always forbidden any sort of acquaintanceship outside of the home. Her mother had said there were no such things as real friends, just people who would use you. Still, Rose mostly kept to herself and didn't go out much. One day when she got back to Perdell from work, she was told by one of the other girls that she was wanted in the office. Rose's stomach dropped at this. Normally, anyone called to the office was in trouble and Rose had been very careful to fly under the radar so she wouldn't get in trouble. When she got there, she saw that her social worker was waiting for her and now her fears changed. Had her mother gotten custody of her back? Rose's thoughts raced a million miles a minute as she wondered if she would be told to pack up her things. Nope, Rose's mother's charges had been dropped from attempted murder to assault. The judge sentenced her mother to a year of community service and she would have to take anger management classes. The judge stipulated that if her mother did well with anger management she could apply for custody of Rose again. Rose sat there stunned at this. In the back of her mind she had known that her mother would weasel out of it somehow. She always did. It had only taken a few days for the police to find and arrest Rose's mother. It was a relief that they had found Rose's mother. It meant Rose could stop looking over her shoulder for a time being, but now she had to be careful again because now her mother was out and she might find Rose and finish the job. She might make it look like an accident. Or her mother could wait to get custody again, but Rose knew that patience wasn't one of her mother's strong points. Rose felt numb after hearing this. She thought she would have more time. The next day, she scheduled herself to take the exit exam in two weeks. For the two weeks, all she did was study and work. She even asked her boss at the restaurant for extra shifts. Taking over for the dishwasher on his days off. The owner had told her that he couldn't have her on the schedule for those extra shifts because it was against the child labor laws to schedule a minor for more than 20 hours a week, but he would pay her under the table for her extra time. Rose had told the house manager at Perdell that she had joined a study group that met at the public library so she would have a reason as to why she wasn't there, since she couldn't mention she was working extra hours. By the time the test rolled around, Rose was exhausted both mentally and physically. After the test, Rose relaxed a little bit because now all she had to think about was saving money. The exit exam had been a lot easier than she thought it would be. She breezed through it wondering if they had given her the wrong booklet. A few days later, after work, as Rose was waiting for the bus to take her back to Perdell, her coworker Deanna came over to wait with Rose. "How come you never come out with us after work?" Deanna asked. Rose smiled and replied "I'm usually really tired after work, plus I have a curfew." Deanna chuckled and said "You're too young to be tired, you should come out with us on Friday. It'll be fun, we can go dancing or we could just chill and talk if your too 'tired'." Rose then said "What about my curfew?" Deanna was quiet for a minute then said "Yeah there is that.... you could sneak out." Rose just shook her head and laughed. When Friday rolled around, Rose decided she would go out with her coworkers after work and stay for an hour and try and sneak in after curfew. She reasoned that if she got caught it wouldn't be too bad because she never got in trouble at Perdell. That didn't mean she wasn't nervous about breaking the rules, but she decided to have at least one night of fun after the past few weeks of nothing but studying and working. When Rose told Deanna that she had decided to go, Deanna was ecstatic. "Oh my gosh! I can't believe it! What are you going to wear?" Rose just shrugged and gestured to the clothes she was currently wearing. Deanna's eyes widened and she said "You can't wear that! They won't let you in. The club had a dress code." "Well, this is what I have and I didn't know it was a club. In case you have forgotten, I am a minor and couldn't get in even if I was dressed properly." said Rose, matter of factly. "You mean you don't have a fake I.D.? I had one when I was your age." Deanna asked in disbelief. Rose laughed with incredulity and said "Fake I.D.? Are you serious? I don't even know where I would get one. I probably wouldn't be able to afford one." "Well, this sucks." said Deanna, a little disheartened, but then quickly followed with "You know what, I know someone who could get you one!" Rose, who had started to feel a little relieved that she wouldn't have to sneak out at all and could go home after work was thinking of a way to politely turn Deanna's offer down when Deanna said "Don't worry, I've got you covered! I'll call up my friend and let you know.". Rose didn't want to go out that badly and she wasn't sure how to let Deanna know that she didn't really want a fake I.D. Rose wasn't really interested in getting drunk or breaking curfew. On Monday, Rose got her test results in the mail. She had passed and she was elated. Now all she had to do was wait for her diploma. Hopefully, it wouldn't take too long. Rose was itching to get out of there. Somewhere, her mother couldn't find her. That night at work, while Rose was washing dishes, Deanna sidled up to Rose and whispered in her ear "Hey, I talked to my friend and he said he could make you an I.D. but it would cost around 250. I can take you to him tonight and he can take your picture." Deanna finished up this statement by wiggling her eyebrows as if to indicate this was a covert operation. "Uh, I don't know... that's a lot of money for me right now.." Rose said. "It will be a good investment. Think of all the fun you'll have! Besides, don't you want to celebrate passing that test?" Deanna insisted. Rose just sighed and said "Oh alright." at this, Deanna did a little dance and said "I can't wait!" and went back to waiting tables. After work, Rose and Deanna rode the bus to Deanna's friend's apartment. Rose was expecting this guy to live in a seedy area of town but it turned out this guy lived in some upscale apartments. She even had to take her shoes off so his white carpets wouldn't get damaged. He didn't look like a forger to her. He was tall, thin and wore eyeglasses. He kind of looked like your average I.T. guy. Nearly everything in his apartment was white with gold trim. Rose was scared to sit down because her clothes were still moist and slightly soiled from washing dishes at work. He told Deanna to have a seat and motioned for Rose to follow him. He led her to a room with what looked like a half office, half studio. When he shut the door, Rose realized he hadn't introduced himself. She supposed it didn't really matter. "250 in cash first." said I.T. guy. Rose pulled the money out of her pocket and handed it over. As he was counting it, Rose had an idea and blurted "Can it say 18 instead of 21?". This stopped the guy mid-count and he said "You wont be able to buy liquor." Rose just said "I don't want to buy liquor, I just want it to appear I am old enough to work more than 20 hours a week." I.T. guy just stared at Rose for a minute and said "Well that's new... no one has asked for that before." When he was done counting he handed her back 50 dollars of the money she handed him and he said "The type you want will be easier to make. Go stand over there, don't smile.". After snapping a few photos, he then said "It will be ready in a week. Don't come here, I will bring it to you." then he showed her and Deanna out of the apartment. As Rose was walking to the bus stop she said "Well... that was different..." Deanna giggled and said "He's always been way too serious. He makes great I.D.'s though." That night Rose had a hard time falling asleep. She was thinking about I.T. guy and what he had said. He said he would bring her the I.D. but he hadn't told her where or when. Did she just get ripped off? No... maybe Deanna told him. Hopefully, he wouldn't show up at Perdell. Over the next few days she thought about asking Deanna if she knew how he would get it to her but she kept her mouth shut. She also hadn't told Deanna about getting an I.D. that said Rose was 18 instead of 21. Rose could still get into bars and clubs if it said 18 but, she wouldn't be able to buy drinks that had alcohol in them. Rose hoped that she wouldn't have to tell Deanna anything after she got her Diploma and I.D. she could disappear. She knew that the names on both documents wouldn't match, but one she needed now and one she would use later. One afternoon, Rose was walking to the bus stop and she heard someone say "Hey! Miss? You dropped something!" Rose turned around to see a woman bending over to pick something up off the sidewalk and handed it to Rose, saying "You don't want to lose this, it's so easy for people to steal identities these days." Rose was about to say that it wasn't hers but on closer inspection it was her photo on the card. When she looked up questioningly to the woman who had "found" the I.D. she was already walking away. Rose just stood there dumbfounded. Then she looked around as she slipped her new I.D. into her pocket. Rose had planned to go to the library before work but when she got to the library she used one of the payphones to call in. Her boss didn't give Rose a hard time because she had never called in or had ever been late before. After that, she went into the library and sat down at a computer to look at train schedules. She had put a lot of thought into how she would get to where she was going. She already knew where. She had known for a long time that it had to be heavily populated so she would go unnoticed. She couldn't fly there because what if security recognized her I.D. as a fake? The bus was too slow. She couldn't hitchhike even if she wanted to take the chance. She would definitely be noticed with her thumb out walking down the side of the road, not to mention it was extremely dangerous. So, Rose settled on taking the train. After she was done at the library, she bought a cheap wallet to put two or three dollars in just in case she was mugged. She also bought a backpack at the thrift store. When she got back to Perdell she was called into the office. "What now?!?" Rose thought as she went to see what they wanted. The manager handed her a long flat envelope and said that the mail carrier needed it to be signed for. "Oh." was all Rose said to this and began to open it. A sigh of relief escaped Rose's lips when she saw what it was. It was her diploma! Finally! If Rose played her cards right she could leave as soon as tomorrow. A surge of nervous excitement coursed through her. A little piece of her had never believed that she would be able to do it. She was so close she could taste it. Quickly, she gave herself a reality check. She actually hadn't left yet and she wasn't sure if she would be caught before she could actually get away. That night Rose went over the plan in her head over and over until she saw no flaws, but she still couldn't sleep. In the morning, she quit her job and collected her last check. Then she went to the bank and closed her account. After that, she went back to Perdell and waited for the sleeping area to be empty before packing a few of her belongings in her backpack. If she took everything, it would look too suspicious. When she was done, she took one last look around and walked out of Perdell for the last time.