Thoreau's Rooster

          He gripped the wheel again so you could see his white knuckles. He checked all his mirrors and then the gas gage; enough to get them far away from here. Just as he began to realize how crazy this was, he heard the alarm go off.
          Half a second later the front door flew open. She never looked so alive. The sunlight engulfed her face forcing her to squint. She was slow, but no one followed. She knew what she was doing. Since the day she had arrived here she had been planning, calculating, mapping out her escape. All that had just paid off. They had the head start.
          He leaned over and opened the side door. Peg jumped in, and the door slammed along with the gas pedal. Tires squealed in pain; the engine groaned to a roar. The tiny Corolla accelerated quickly out of the St. Patrick’s Nursing Home parking lot and pealed off down the street.
          “WOO-EEE! Oh Lordy Lordy Lordy!” she cried, “Can you believe that?” He just laughed, which turned into a nervous cough when he pictured the look on his mother’s face.
          “All right, so where to, Granma?”
          “What do you mean; you’ve got no place to go? No lady friend to pick up?”
          “I don’t think this would make a good second date, Granma.”
          “I suppose… I would like to meet her eventually though.”
          “Sure thing, it’s just today doesn’t seem like a good day.”
          “Well, if you’ve got no place planned, and no one to see, lets go to the beach.”
          “Granma, don’t you think that will be the first place they look?”
          “Not the beach we’re going to. We’re going to Castle Island, turn left here.” The tires squealed again in excitement. The chase was on!
***
          “Hello sweetie, is your mother there?”
          “No she’s at a baseball game right now.”
          “Well is you’re daddy there, hunny?”
          “I don’t know…”
          “Well do you think you could go look for him for me?”
          “Sure!” His sister put down the phone and sarcastically smiled to herself. “‘Where’s your daddy sweetie? Is your mommy there sweetie?’” She went downstairs and sat on the couch next to his dad. “Who was that on the phone?”
          “Just a telemarketer,” she said as his father went back to his Red Sox game. The Nursing Home manager waited another five minutes before hanging up and calling again only to get a busy signal.
***
          “Get off here”
          “But this isn’t the exit.”
          “I can’t go looking like this. We need to make a stop first. Did you bring what I asked for?”
          “Yes.”
          “Good.”
          The unsuspicious car rolled into the mall’s garage and backed into a parking spot in the shadows of the lower level.
***
          The outfielder’s back pocket began to vibrate for the third time. This time his head dropped and a burst of laughter escaped leaving him shivering with excitement and dying to share his secret with somebody! He was about to detonate! He wondered just how far his big brother was going to get. In the bleachers his mother checked her purse for a third time swearing she remembered putting her cell phone there. And what was more disturbing to her was that she couldn’t find her credit card either.
***
          The two fugitives met up again incognito at the meeting spot, though they didn’t exchange glances. The mall was crawling with security officers sipping fruit drinks. The Outlaws walked separately back to the car and said nothing to each other as they saddled back up. It wasn’t until the doors were locked, the belts bucked, and the engine purred a steady hum at the stop sign by the exit of the parking garage that they spoke. While staring straight ahead through their new aviator sunglasses, without even turning to look at each other they muttered a few words.
          “You look good,” she said.
          “I’ve got good genes,” he replied.
          “There’s no turning back now, you know.”
          “I’m well aware of this, Grandma.”
          Grandma cracked a brief smile. “That’s my boy, your Grampa George would be proud.” Just as quick, the smile was gone.
          “It’s ten miles to Castle Island, we’ve got a full tank of gas, matching T-shirts, and we’re wearing sunglasses. Hit it.”
          “You got it boss,” he muttered as he faced forward and threw the car into drive. Though the tires continued to protest, the car was propelled out of its hiding spot, and back to the exposed highway.
***
          “But I really don’t think you understand the situation Ms. Perkins…I don’t want to alarm you but I think someone may have picked up your mother in a car outside.”
          “Eh, she does this all the time; she’ll turn up soon, thank you for your concern. I’ll go and look for her right now. I wouldn’t get the police anymore involved you see, she’s ninety three, how far could she possibly get?”
          “Well the police have already been notified and officers all over are on the lookout for the description of her and the car.”
          “Well thank you, but that really isn’t necessary. It has been nice talking to you, goodbye!”
          As soon as she hung up the phone she fell to the floor laughing. He did it! He actually did it! Her little cousin had pulled it off! She quickly dialed her older brother to update him. She also needed to keep her phone line busy so his aunt wouldn’t get anymore calls.
***
          The gasoline burned as they sailed down the highway again. Through the opened windows, thunderous waves of moist, salt, air blew back Granma’s silk scarf.
          “So, don’t you have a lady friend to pick up?”
          He blushed a second time as he replied, “No, Granma.”
          “Well, it’s a good thing we went shopping then. You look good. We’ll be able to find you somebody at the Island.”
       “Well I have a ‘lady friend,’ but I’d rather not get her arrested is what I meant.”
          “Really!? Oh! That’s great dear! What’s she like?”
          “I don’t know Granma.”
          “Well, is she good looking?”
          “I don’t know Granma!”
          “You don’t know if she’s good looking? Why if your Granpa George ever heard that!”
          They parked down the street from Castle Island. They walked around the shore and ended at Sully’s. His mom bought them two dogs with the works and a couple of cokes. They sat on a hill, by the fort, watching the planes take off from Logan, while ships tried to make it to the horizon. He would blush each time his grandma whistled over a young girl to start up a conversation with.
          It was dark when the police cruisers pulled into the parking lot. They watched from above as the officers began circling the Island, and running up the hill in their direction. He looked sadly into his granma’s eyes. Before today he had never noticed how animate her eyes were.
          “Your brother couldn’t hide that cell phone in his baseball uniform forever.”
          “It’s time for you to go,” she said.
          “What about you?”
          “Oh, I’ll be all right; these kids think I’m just an old lady.”
          “You sure Granma?”
          “Go sweetie, and find yourself a good girl, would you?”
          He smiled. “Sure thing Granma.” As he started jogging away he turned and yelled, “It’ll be easy; I’ve got good genes.”
***
          His mother came home late that night. “I saw your Granma. You’ll never guess what she pulled today.” It wasn’t until the next month that his mother found a credit card bill that consisted of two pairs of sun glasses, a couple hot dogs with the works, some cokes, a silk scarf, and two T-shirts that read, “Badass on the Move.”