The school bus had dropped me off at my stop half an hour ago, but I still stood in the drizzly rain. I didn’t want to go home because I knew Mom’s new boyfriend would be there. I shuddered, partly from the cold and partly from remembering the predatory gleam in his eye. If he really wanted to take advantage of me, there would be nothing to stop him. Mom stopped caring about me after Dad left us for his mistress. I guess I remind her too much of him, of the past.

Maybe we would both be happier, then, if I didn’t go home. I could keep walking down the street that leads out of town. I could disappear forever, and no one would care. It’s not like I have any friends at school, either. If I make friends, they will find out about my life, and they won’t want to be my friends anymore. It saves a lot of pain and rejection.

Since I’m 16, I can get a job. It wouldn’t be much, but it would be something. Finding a place to live might be harder, but I could just stay at a homeless shelter for a while until I’m 18. Then, I can find an apartment, and I can get my name legally changed so that my mother will never find me.

With that plan in mind, young Sylvia Forester moved on. She kept her head down, staring at the cracked sidewalk as she walked past her street, and the next one, and the next one.

When her mother discovered that she was missing, an Amber Alert went out. Sylvia began to go by her middle name, Alberta. She also cropped her hair short and wore a lot of makeup to disguise her appearance. This kept her from being detected for two years. Then, after her eighteenth birthday, she changed her name; and Sylvia Forester was never seen again.