Stray: Memoir of a Runaway

by Tanya Marquardt

my mother howl on the couch with my aunt. He had been gone for over a month, and there had been no warning, no phone calls. Mom found out because our rent check bounced. She was certain we’d be evicted, and borrowed money from her sister until Dad arrived over a week later, with his tie half-done and stained slacks. He looked like a half-dead thing, a thing

“I can take care of myself,” I said through gritted

She can take care of self, she has guts and intelligence and a plan

“her garments, heavy with their drink . . . to muddy death.” The moment I read that passage I knew.

How Impressionable a young mind is

I wanted to die. One day, before my parents