TRANSKRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:11.119
Welcome to into the night i'm nari your guide on
2
00:00:11.150 --> 00:00:14.509
today's excursion down a twisted path be careful not to
3
00:00:14.529 --> 00:00:17.469
get lost be it dark or light it's easy to
4
00:00:17.510 --> 00:00:40.409
lose your way are you ready then let's begin Sweet
5
00:00:40.649 --> 00:00:45.789
Chariot The clammy night encircled her as she strained to
6
00:00:45.829 --> 00:00:49.130
hear the sound of an approaching bus. She was early,
7
00:00:49.229 --> 00:00:52.250
she knew, and wishing for its arrival wouldn't change the
8
00:00:52.270 --> 00:00:57.850
realities of a public transportation bus schedule. Now all she
9
00:00:57.869 --> 00:01:01.490
could do was wait. Darkness seeped into the poorly lit
10
00:01:01.530 --> 00:01:06.060
spot where she sat. An involuntary shudder passed through her,
11
00:01:06.439 --> 00:01:09.799
and she pushed aside thoughts of her vulnerability. A young
12
00:01:09.859 --> 00:01:12.659
woman alone on a night like this could only wonder
13
00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:16.459
who she might encounter. Seeking solace from her plight, she
14
00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:18.939
wrapped her arms across her chest and did her best
15
00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:22.659
to think of the safety she'd soon have. If only
16
00:01:22.739 --> 00:01:26.989
her bride would arrive. Sixteen was too young to be
17
00:01:27.030 --> 00:01:29.569
in this place, and the guilt that came with knowing
18
00:01:29.609 --> 00:01:33.230
she'd done it to herself bore down on her. The
19
00:01:33.290 --> 00:01:35.790
chip she'd carried on her shoulder not that long ago
20
00:01:35.890 --> 00:01:39.489
had crumbled. and now she found herself craving the stability
21
00:01:39.569 --> 00:01:42.930
and safety of home. It was a home hundreds of
22
00:01:42.989 --> 00:01:46.109
miles away, but for the first time in months, her
23
00:01:46.189 --> 00:01:50.810
travels took her towards, not away from it. She once
24
00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:54.239
read a novel called Found Family, and the gritty allure
25
00:01:54.319 --> 00:01:56.519
of living tough on the streets had driven her to
26
00:01:56.579 --> 00:02:00.680
flee her conservative family. The romance of living wild, without
27
00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:04.939
anyone telling her who or what to be, had been intoxicating.
28
00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:08.800
Six months ago, she chose to strike out on her own,
29
00:02:09.340 --> 00:02:12.490
certain that somewhere along the way, she too would find
30
00:02:12.530 --> 00:02:16.370
a found family on the streets. People who understood her
31
00:02:16.789 --> 00:02:20.629
and wouldn't bind her to school or chores. That was
32
00:02:20.669 --> 00:02:25.409
what her restless spirit yearned for, freedom. She'd since learned
33
00:02:25.650 --> 00:02:28.490
that freedom from one perceived prison only put her in
34
00:02:28.530 --> 00:02:32.409
the middle of a different kind of one. A puff
35
00:02:32.449 --> 00:02:35.319
of breeze scattered the dead leaves around the bench. and
36
00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:38.740
they lifted and danced in the dim light. They reminded
37
00:02:38.780 --> 00:02:42.090
her of childhood and crisp autumn days spent playing in
38
00:02:42.129 --> 00:02:46.590
the raked leaves of the suburban home where she lived. Childhood.
39
00:02:47.669 --> 00:02:52.370
That idea seemed so far away. On a bright October
40
00:02:52.389 --> 00:02:55.340
day when she was six years old, Maddie Curtis thought
41
00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:59.009
she was in a magical land. The vibrant reds, oranges,
42
00:02:59.069 --> 00:03:01.969
and yellows of the autumn trees had transformed the world
43
00:03:02.009 --> 00:03:05.000
she thought she knew into a realm where handsome princes
44
00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:09.000
and fairy godmothers just might be real. Her parents feared
45
00:03:09.020 --> 00:03:11.780
that a corn maze, even in the daytime, might be
46
00:03:11.819 --> 00:03:15.060
too scary for their little girl. But a pumpkin patch
47
00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:18.919
and a hayride seemed ready-made for her innocent, adventurous nature.
48
00:03:20.060 --> 00:03:24.080
Maddie smiled, thinking back on that outing. Two Peas Pumpkin
49
00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:27.539
Patch wasn't simply a garden spot of pumpkins. More outdoor
50
00:03:27.580 --> 00:03:30.889
games than she thought were possible filled the acre-sized area
51
00:03:31.009 --> 00:03:33.590
that sat just inside the gate and on the outskirts
52
00:03:33.610 --> 00:03:37.009
of the corn maze. Her best memory of the place
53
00:03:37.090 --> 00:03:40.129
was the petting zoo. As a suburban girl who wasn't
54
00:03:40.169 --> 00:03:42.349
even allowed to have a dog as a pet, her
55
00:03:42.569 --> 00:03:46.800
parents claimed she was allergic. Petting goats, calves, ducks, and
56
00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:50.460
other farm animals left an impression on her. The goats,
57
00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:52.680
pesky and comical, were her favorites.
58
00:03:54.180 --> 00:03:54.699
Please, Mama?
59
00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:57.759
Mama? Can we please have a goat? I promise I'll
60
00:03:57.780 --> 00:03:59.699
take care of it. It can live in the backyard.
61
00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:07.039
Her mother was not amused. Maddie, Joe, we cannot have
62
00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:09.599
a goat in the city limits. Can you imagine what
63
00:04:09.650 --> 00:04:13.990
a goat would do to my azaleas? Maddie softly chuckled
64
00:04:14.129 --> 00:04:17.810
as she realized she'd never forgiven her mother. Now it
65
00:04:17.870 --> 00:04:21.490
seemed silly, and she realized the impracticality of having farm
66
00:04:21.550 --> 00:04:24.060
animals in the middle of town, and her heart softened
67
00:04:24.209 --> 00:04:29.439
toward her mother. Oh, Mom, I have blamed you for
68
00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:35.089
so many things that you didn't deserve. Her mother was
69
00:04:35.149 --> 00:04:38.470
strict and unyielding in her religious
Load full transcript
and social views. That
70
00:04:38.509 --> 00:04:41.990
was true. The world had brought home the point to Maddie, though,
71
00:04:42.329 --> 00:04:45.310
that adults live by as many, if not more, social
72
00:04:45.350 --> 00:04:50.230
constraints as children do. Even if they wanted to have
73
00:04:50.269 --> 00:04:53.250
a hobby farm in the backyard, the homeowners association would
74
00:04:53.310 --> 00:04:56.139
never have allowed it. we'd have been kicked out of
75
00:04:56.180 --> 00:05:00.399
the neighborhood. I held resentment for years over that goat,
76
00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:06.529
and now I can see how unfair I'd been. When
77
00:05:06.610 --> 00:05:08.730
she ran away at the age of 15, she thought
78
00:05:08.769 --> 00:05:11.649
she knew it all. She learned the hard way that
79
00:05:11.689 --> 00:05:14.189
the world owed no one anything, and there was a
80
00:05:14.250 --> 00:05:17.829
price to be paid for everything. What she thought was
81
00:05:17.889 --> 00:05:21.819
freedom was nothing more than a tangled quagmire of choice
82
00:05:22.300 --> 00:05:26.829
versus consequence. The wind whipped a little stronger now, and
83
00:05:26.870 --> 00:05:30.230
it caused Maddie to shudder. Her room back in Glenwood
84
00:05:30.269 --> 00:05:34.509
seemed like a safe haven that she missed terribly. I've
85
00:05:34.540 --> 00:05:38.620
slept in places that would frighten a grown man. Embarrassment
86
00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:42.259
swept over her as she then thought. I've slept with
87
00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:47.300
people who were just as scary. Maddie felt unclean and
88
00:05:47.339 --> 00:05:49.759
broken when she considered the price she paid for living
89
00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:52.839
on the streets. As a petite girl who left with
90
00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:55.189
little more than the clothes on her back, She had
91
00:05:55.250 --> 00:05:58.250
no currency to barter with other than her body. Men
92
00:05:58.290 --> 00:06:00.329
were too willing to name their price for even the
93
00:06:00.370 --> 00:06:03.870
most trivial benefit they provided. A part of her was
94
00:06:03.930 --> 00:06:06.949
taken away for any meal, for any protection, and for
95
00:06:07.069 --> 00:06:11.860
any shelter a man provided. Then there was Rubio. Handsome
96
00:06:11.889 --> 00:06:14.060
in a tough way, the boy who was no more
97
00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:16.500
than a few years older than she was seemed to
98
00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:20.889
know exactly what to do in every situation. He found
99
00:06:20.939 --> 00:06:23.540
her one afternoon, cold and sitting on a park bench,
100
00:06:23.779 --> 00:06:27.240
and he offered to bring her to his street family. Finally,
101
00:06:27.379 --> 00:06:31.139
she had the family she'd run away to find. Unlike
102
00:06:31.180 --> 00:06:34.459
the book, however, she found herself caught in a dysfunctional
103
00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:39.699
web of loyalty and never-ending demands. She was expected to
104
00:06:39.740
--> 00:06:42.220
pull her own weight, and any fruits of her labor
105
00:06:42.259 --> 00:06:45.920
were turned over to Rubio. Instead of a family, she
106
00:06:45.980 --> 00:06:49.019
was trapped in a prostitution ring with him as her pimp.
107
00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:52.459
This wasn't at all what she had left home for.
108
00:06:53.339 --> 00:06:55.879
She thought of those golden October days of her childhood.
109
00:06:56.680 --> 00:06:59.139
Back then, she had no idea not every little girl
110
00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:02.649
went on hay rides and visited pumpkin patches. As she
111
00:07:02.689 --> 00:07:05.310
grew older, she had no idea that not every girl
112
00:07:05.389 --> 00:07:08.149
had nice clothes or plenty of food or money to
113
00:07:08.209 --> 00:07:12.529
spend on anything she wanted. Growing up in an affluent neighborhood,
114
00:07:12.709 --> 00:07:14.889
she only saw what she and her friends had, and
115
00:07:14.910 --> 00:07:16.939
she took what was freely given to her for granted.
116
00:07:18.339 --> 00:07:21.720
Strings were attached to that good life, however. She was
117
00:07:21.779 --> 00:07:24.449
expected to present the image of a perfect girl to
118
00:07:24.470 --> 00:07:27.829
the world. Steve and Mary Ann Curtis had a reputation
119
00:07:27.850 --> 00:07:30.709
to uphold, after all, and that meant their daughter must
120
00:07:30.790 --> 00:07:35.220
perform accordingly. She had to wear the right clothes, have
121
00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:37.319
her hair styled the way her mother told her to,
122
00:07:37.939 --> 00:07:41.360
play with only certain children, and a hundred other spoken
123
00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:45.860
and unspoken requirements. She grew sick of it. As she
124
00:07:45.899 --> 00:07:48.920
became a teenager, the pressure to perform became too great.
125
00:07:49.819 --> 00:07:52.259
Instead of shying away from the troubled kids at school,
126
00:07:52.740 --> 00:07:55.879
she gravitated toward them. She snuck out of the house,
127
00:07:56.259 --> 00:07:59.300
and when she was caught, she was grounded, stripped of belongings,
128
00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:03.269
and put on an even tighter leash. This caused more
129
00:08:03.449 --> 00:08:06.230
anger to build inside her, and she came to resent
130
00:08:06.269 --> 00:08:10.689
her parents and everything they represented. I will be free
131
00:08:10.769 --> 00:08:15.759
from this, she told herself. She devised her plan, and
132
00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:18.259
after a heated argument with her parents, she struck out
133
00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:21.279
on her own. It didn't take long for the romance
134
00:08:21.319 --> 00:08:23.439
of life on the street to disappear into a haze
135
00:08:23.459 --> 00:08:28.029
of abuse and wrong turns. After rereading Found Family, she
136
00:08:28.069 --> 00:08:32.549
decided that maybe stability wasn't such a bad fate. Perhaps
137
00:08:32.610 --> 00:08:36.090
living under her parents' roof with food, hot water, and
138
00:08:36.149 --> 00:08:39.470
no one demanding her body, only her love and obedience
139
00:08:39.789 --> 00:08:43.830
wasn't so bad after all. The final fight with Rubio
140
00:08:44.029 --> 00:08:47.100
ended it all. Sitting on the bus stop bench, the
141
00:08:47.129 --> 00:08:50.600
details were fuzzy in her head, but she remembered she
142
00:08:50.659 --> 00:08:54.039
had made up her mind to escape, and Rubio was
143
00:08:54.139 --> 00:08:58.299
not happy about it. He was violent. She knew that.
144
00:08:59.159 --> 00:09:01.879
She watched him brutalize people who came between him and
145
00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:05.129
what he wanted, whether he knew them or not. She
146
00:09:05.190 --> 00:09:07.830
winced slightly at the memory of his fist hitting her face,
147
00:09:08.669 --> 00:09:11.450
and she gently touched her bruised cheek and swollen lip.
148
00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:15.470
The lights of the oncoming bus caused her to wince
149
00:09:15.500 --> 00:09:18.529
at the bright beam. The bus brakes screeched as the
150
00:09:18.549 --> 00:09:20.750
bus came to a stop, and the smell of diesel
151
00:09:20.789 --> 00:09:24.370
exhaust wafted into Maddie's face as the breeze swirled around her.
152
00:09:25.710 --> 00:09:29.610
The doors opened, and she stepped in. Maddie gasped, and
153
00:09:29.649 --> 00:09:31.970
she turned to exit the bus, but the doors had
154
00:09:32.049 --> 00:09:37.269
already closed. Take a seat, young lady. Sorry I'm late.
155
00:09:37.870 --> 00:09:43.529
I wasn't expecting you to be here tonight. Her brow wrinkled. Wait,
156
00:09:43.950 --> 00:09:46.000
what do you mean? You had no way of knowing
157
00:09:46.019 --> 00:09:47.600
that I was going to get on a bus tonight.
158
00:09:48.100 --> 00:09:49.799
You had to know that someone would be waiting at
159
00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:54.000
the bus stop, though. No, young lady. I only arrive
160
00:09:54.059 --> 00:09:57.289
when I know I have passengers to pick up. That's
161
00:09:57.370 --> 00:10:03.399
the way this line runs. Confused, she studied his face
162
00:10:03.559 --> 00:10:08.340
and arms. He looked kind but weary, and he seemed
163
00:10:08.379 --> 00:10:12.700
apologetic to see her there at all. His arms didn't
164
00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:16.139
look quite right, but she couldn't put her finger on
165
00:10:16.230 --> 00:10:22.320
what exactly was different about him. His arms seemed too bright,
166
00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:25.789
and his hair seemed to be blowing in a breeze,
167
00:10:25.889 --> 00:10:30.830
but there's no wind inside the bus. She shook her head,
168
00:10:31.190 --> 00:10:33.509
not caring at this point what the man's story was.
169
00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:37.190
She was going home, and that was all she cared about.
170
00:10:38.529 --> 00:10:43.980
Whatever you say, she mumbled. Find a seat. It's pretty
171
00:10:44.009 --> 00:10:48.879
full tonight. You were my last pickup. Turning to walk
172
00:10:48.899 --> 00:10:53.919
down the aisle... She stood, frozen in place. What is this?
173
00:10:54.179 --> 00:10:57.870
Let me off! Now, honey, don't get upset on me.
174
00:10:58.710 --> 00:11:01.269
I know it must be a shock for you, being
175
00:11:01.649 --> 00:11:06.309
so young and old. Sitting wide-eyed, staring at the latest
176
00:11:06.389 --> 00:11:09.409
rider to board the express bus, sat the ghostly figures
177
00:11:09.450 --> 00:11:13.110
of others whose time had come to be collected. Miss,
178
00:11:13.620 --> 00:11:15.980
why don't you have a seat? It's been a long
179
00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:20.850
night for all of us. He's only doing his job. Unsteadily,
180
00:11:20.929 --> 00:11:23.450
she found a seat and sat as the bus rolled forward.
181
00:11:24.570 --> 00:11:26.669
Only after she was seated did she notice that her
182
00:11:26.850 --> 00:11:30.230
arms and legs were ghostly pale, the same as the
183
00:11:30.289 --> 00:11:32.769
apparitions who surrounded her as they sat on seats of
184
00:11:32.789 --> 00:11:37.580
their own. As the bus picked up speed, spontaneously, the
185
00:11:37.620 --> 00:11:40.000
riders on the bus broke into a subdued song.
186
00:11:42.129 --> 00:12:01.940
Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home.
187
00:12:03.639 --> 00:12:07.039
Without meaning to, Maddie's own voice joined in the chorus,
188
00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:11.320
and she finally realized that the home she would return
189
00:12:11.379 --> 00:12:32.379
to was not found in any suburb. Thank you for
190
00:12:32.419 --> 00:12:34.659
joining me for this episode of the Into the Night
191
00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:39.480
Anthology podcast, written by Caroline Giamonco, narrated by Nari, theme
192
00:12:39.539 --> 00:12:42.340
music by Nico Rodriguez. You can find our links in
193
00:12:42.360 --> 00:12:45.539
the show notes. Into the Night is on your favorite podcatcher,
194
00:12:45.799 --> 00:12:48.600
so make sure to like, subscribe, and leave a five-star
195
00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:51.620
review to help other excursionists to join us. I'll see
196
00:12:51.639 --> 00:12:54.899
you next time. And remember, whether in the shadows or
197
00:12:54.940 --> 00:13:07.659
in the daylight, all twisted paths lead you into the night. Hi, excursionists.
198
00:13:07.960 --> 00:13:11.000
I'm so glad you stayed. If you ever wonder what
199
00:13:11.019 --> 00:13:13.460
I'm working on when I'm not here, you can find
200
00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:18.009
my current and past projects at narinarates.com. That's also where
201
00:13:18.029 --> 00:13:20.070
you can sign up to be a story in my library,
202
00:13:20.429 --> 00:13:23.460
where every story somehow finds its way back home.