The bus driver said, “yes she is….she is planning on going back to the high school.” . My mother said, “no she’s not!!!!”   I guess mom got thought about the blank paper she signed for me to check out of school. She thought I would use that to get married. When actually we were just trying to get a early start, because they wouldn’t expect me home till after school. Mother marched on the bus….headed straight for me. She asked me if I tried to run away to get married…( I had a yellow lace dress and white high heels in my hands.) I thought about it…and knew I was going back to the high school to act like nothing happened, so I said NO!!! (well I wasn’t usually a liar, but I just couldn’t bear to tell her the truth.).  Mother took me by the arm and marched me off of the bus. The kids were standing there to get on the bus headed to the high school. There were many of my fellow students. It was a small town and a small high school. Mother looked at the students and said, “They tried to run away, and I caught them.” She marched me to the car where my dad was sitting in the passenger’s seat. She put me right between them and said, “I can’t trust you as far as I can throw you.”  My dad asked me in his slow Mississippi accent…”Hon, did you try to run away?” I told him yes mother said she was going to take me to the school and check me out herself. When we got out of the car, she once again took me by my arm and was going to escort me to my locker. The students were all standing along the sides of the hall watching in utter shock. My mother looking from side to side of the hall turning her head one way and then the other reciting “They tried to run away, but I caught them.” I kept asking my mom not to say that.  We went to the office and checked me out, ready to head for Tennessee. Mom preached to me all the way home. I was a captive audience.

John noticed that the plan didn’t work out, so it wasn’t but just a few minutes after we got home, that we heard John driving up the driveway. Oh my…. mother was not in the mood. As John walked up to the door she said in her stern voice, “John Shepherd don’t you darken these doors, I mean it, don’t you come in this house.” “John said, yes I am.” Mom told him she meant it and that she was going to call the cops if he came in. John just walked right in, mother grabbed the phone off of the wall and said, I’m calling the police. John told her in his quiet and calm voice to go ahead and call them…. (to be continued)