CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I was walking for what felt like a long time before I started to get tired. My shoes, being little pink high-tops that had never been worn in, were beginning to wear on my feet and I could feel blisters forming on my feet, feet made soft from the lack of walking and shoes while being Daddy's live-in slave. I could feel fatigue too. I was tired, and I was sore, and I didn't want to keep doing this.
As much as running away from Daddy's mansion was a little silly, I didn't feel like I wanted to return still.
Without a phone, I couldn't call a cab, or anyone I knew from my old life - not that they'd care - to ask for help. I wound up finding a tree to fall asleep underneath and laying my head there.
Until I lay my head down, I didn't realize how tired I was. Emotionally, I was exhausted. Physically I wasn't far behind after spending far too much time crying and feeling sorry for myself. I didn't have time to reflect on that though before I fell into a deep sleep, one which was so deep that I couldn't rise from it, even if I'd wanted to.
The next morning I awoke to the sound of bird song. The feeling of waking completely free was both liberating and frustrating. Now I was awake, I had to find my own path. This was hard.
It took me longer to move that morning than it usually would, but I forced my legs to move regardless. I had places to be, and besides, I was hungry.
My legs carried me in the same direction I had been walking last night until I came across a major road. This road was larger, and I guessed would have more cars than other roads I had passed. Having never hitched a lift anywhere before, I stuck my thumb out when I saw a car and got someone to stop right away. Beginners luck. Climbing in the car, I told the driver, a woman around my age, that I was just going to the nearest town.
She took one look at me in my infantile clothes, with my fairy bag and the dirt that must be on my face from sleeping rough. When I thought about it too, my hair that I'd slept on had to be pretty messy too. I hadn't thought much about my appearance until I was in this womans gaze. Feeling self conscious, I turned back to face the road, "okay lady." She said in a voice that told me she really didn't want to know why I looked the way I did.
As she drove, I looked over at her, with her dark hair and apple-shaped body, I felt that this matronly lady was familiar. I wanted to talk to her, in the way small children find women that remind them of their own mothers want to talk to them, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't bring myself to reach out, even to this stranger.
I was dropped off in an American town which looked much the same as every other American town. It had a diner where I went to have something to eat. I was starving, and couldn't think straight as a result.
Sitting down, I ordered a big breakfast which came with bottomless coffee. I really, really needed that coffee!
The waitress poured me some coffee and disappeared to take some other customers' order. Looking around, I wondered what people would think of me. This was the first time in what felt like a lifetime - but was only back until Daddy's mother's funeral - that I had worn clothes. It was the first time since then, too, that I had been out of the house, and the first time I had ordered my own food as Daddy had me on a special diet that was supposed to be good for my health.
I knew by looking at me, no-one could tell that I was a now homeless ex baby girl slave. That would be, they wouldn't be able to tell that about me if they knew what a baby girl slave was in the first place. I assumed from the look of these people that they didn't know much about consensual slavery. The diner was made up of respectable families and middle-class people. I knew if the term 'consensual slavery' was floated to them, they'd likely furrow their brows and think me a strange character who wore funny clothes and uttered oxymorons.
My breakfast arrived, and I wolfed it down. About half way through demolishing my breakfast, it occurred to me that I should just go home. I had signed a contract giving Daddy my assets, but he hadn't known where I lived in the first place. Daddy had enough money that he didn't need my assets in the first place, it was just one of those things people put in a contract but never act on. I still felt that even though the contact couldn't be legally binding, that it was. It just felt too real somehow.
After I paid for my meal, I thought, I would go hire a car with a GPS system and go home. I had enough money for that.
Finishing my breakfast in what felt like record time I went up to the counter to pay. Asking the waitress for advice on where to go to rent a car, I was told that there was a hire car place a few towns over. Smiling at the woman, I gave her a handsome tip which she was very grateful for and made my way back to the main road. Knowing the name of the next town would make it easier to get a lift. This time though, I was lucky enough that there was a cab and I wouldn't have to hitchhike. I waved the cab down and told him that I wanted to go to the car rental place in the town that I had been told about previously. With a curt nod, the driver, a middle-aged Indian man, drove me there in silence.
Out of the cab and into the car office. It was a quick process that got me into a car, but by the time I left the lot in my new car, it was already past lunch time and I had some driving to do. I would be lucky to arrive home before dark.
But, I would be going home, I urged myself on as I drove. I had some place to be, and I had had this whole adventure with a Daddy that I could hold close to myself whenever I got curious again. This whole lifestyle BDSM thing wasn't for me, and I knew that now. But the time away from my life had given me perspective. Daddy's little task had given me perspective too.
I knew that I wanted a relationship, I knew that I wanted to have those friends, and that financial independence. Sometimes you have to do things in an unconventional way to realize that what you want is exactly what everyone else around you wants. It's exactly what others wanted for you when you were young.
And here I was, ready to have all those things. It had just taken me a long time to get to this place. Now I was here though, I would gain the tools to fix the problem.
The whole drive home, I didn't listen to the radio. I just thought and drove. I had plenty to think about, and driving was my antidote for all the thoughts and feelings that were bubbling to the surface.
I would find a job, I would go out more, I would make a concerted effort to meet someone nice. I knew what I wanted in a partner now, and I knew what I wanted from my friends.
By the time I arrived home, I had a head full of plans. I had rented the car with the agreement that I would return it to a rental car place owned by the same company, a franchise that was in my town too. I had paid a higher rate for this, but didn't much care as it meant that I would be home sooner, and being home was what was important to me. Plus, the money was money I had found in my bedroom at Daddy's mansion anyway.
In the darkness, I fumbled for the spare key that hid under a rock in the front yard and let myself in. Locking the door behind me, I walked through the familiar dark house and found my room. Everything, of course, was just how I left it as I crawled into bed. For the second night in a row, I was so tired that I fell asleep with no problems.
Being home felt amazing, but I would have to think about how wonderful it was later, I thought to myself as sleep dragged me under. Now was the time for rest.