Run Away Baby

“Don’t let that bother you.”

“I’ll try not to. Could you hand me my necklace?”

“Here. Is this real?”

“No. It’s some fake thing I got at the mall. Could you help me fasten it?”

“Sure. It looks real.”

“Your cousin doesn’t know anything about this plan for me to stay at his place, right?”

“Man, it’s hard to get this tiny clasp to open,” Charlie said.

Abby turned to look in his eyes. “He doesn’t know, right?”

“Right.”

“Because if he does, we’re going to need to come up with an entirely different plan. No one can be involved. No one.”

“I’m telling you, he doesn’t know. Have you told anyone about me?”

“I don’t have any friends to tell! Anyway, why would you care if I had?”

“I’m making a point that it’s not cool to be constantly accused of lying.”

“Sorry. …I really do want to do this, Charlie, but I’m not sure I’m tough enough to go through with something so crazy and scary.”

“You are. I know you are.”

“Did you find out anything about getting me a fake ID, and whatever else I need? Like a social security number?”

“I’m still looking into that.”

“Okay. I’m going to need all that stuff.”

“I’ll figure it out for you. Or you could. I mean, I figured out everything else. Why don’t you handle that?”

Abby sat down. “You said you would do that!”

“I’ve been busy. I have a fulltime job.”

“Charlie, I’m not ready for this. At all. There’s no part B to this plan? Don’t you think that’s a little crazy? Seriously! What’s my plan? How am I going to live? Who am I going to be? Let’s call the whole thing off for now.”

“What? No way. I’ll find you a new identity. Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure? That stuff is really important. I can’t start over without it.”

“I said I’ll figure it out.” Charlie gave Abby a kiss. “So are you still thinking one week from today?”

Abby nodded. “I guess if we’re going to do it there’s never going to be a better time. Randall will be golfing with his friends again. It’ll be Ernie’s last day in town. He won’t miss me for a couple of hours. It’s just… I feel a little like a rocket shooting out of control.”

Charlie laughed. “A rocket shooting out of control,” he said.

“Can you believe it’s really going to happen?” she asked him.

He nodded. “Don’t worry about a thing, Abby-girl.”

“Could you tell me the address?”