"My" Escape from a rapist
Posted: Sunday, July 05, 2009
by Maxine Headd
I have always been a "doer." I just don't think about how to do something, I will work until I find a way to do it, or I will look up how to do it. That's how it was the night I was trying to get home. I had about three more miles to go. I knew that I had a man tracking my movements. I had to be smarter than he was being if I was going to make it home at all.
I had been playing the piano and singing gospel songs with a young lady named Katy. She could sing and play better a lot better than I could. I wanted her to give me some tips on playing the piano. Katy and I had a very good afternoon playing music. I was sorry to leave her house so soon, but I knew that I had to walk home alone. There would be no telling what would happen on the way home. It still looked like there was a little low light in the evening sky. I would have to walk seven miles to get home.
I was walking fast and as hard as I could along a sandy, dusty country road. I knew I was going to need to get home before dark, and evening was already on its way. I also knew there would be trouble where I was at. If a man caught me alone on a country road in the middle of nowhere, there would be hell to pay. So, I picked up my heels, and I ran a little bit trying to get home before the dark of night came. I was extremely upset that I was out at night and alone. I saw that there was a truck coming up behind me. The driver stopped me, and asked if I wanted a ride. I told him, "no" I'm all right" " I'm just out walking for a little while." I knew immediately, the driver of the truck knew I wasn't just out walking along back country roads, but I absolutely didn't feel like he needed to be told the truth.
Especially because, I was in the "out of way" places, where my mother had told me never to get caught out in. But, I thought I would be all right this time. So I held my tongue in cheek, and I watched the truck driver as he drove his truck away. I knew full well that I could be in a lot of trouble on this road alone at night. I was by myself and there was no one that I trusted to help me. I was watching the truck driver drive away, when he turned into a field road, and he turned his truck around. He came back driving his truck right by me. I just knew then that I was in trouble. But he rolled on past me, his truck motor giving out a little putt-putt-put sound. I heard that motor sound and I memorized it right then. Because I was going to need to know the sound of that motor in order to know where this guy was. I felt a little safer at that. He went up the road, and turned around again coming up behind me in the truck. I was thinking, "God, couldn't this man just leave me alone."
So, I still had about two and one half miles to go before I could get home to safety. It was growing darker all the time. I knew it was not going to be easy, but I felt it was worthwhile to give it a good hard try. I would need to evade this person. The unknown person who undoubtedly, was tracking my movements along the country road. So as he went by this time, I waved at him and when he had disappeared behind me. I slipped into the side road fields, of the cotton fields that I was passing. This defense mechanism must have worked, because I had gotten another mile down the road before I saw him again. However, this time when he came by me his lights were out on the truck. That meant that he was still looking for me. His truck was still going putt-putt-putt. That's how I knew it was him, and that I was in desperate trouble on the way home. I'd hoped that he would just give up and leave me alone when he did not find me on the road. That wasn't going to be the case. So, I started praying as I was walking, and I trusted that the Lord would give me the help I needed, when I needed it. I was right for the Lord did do just that.
But then I came to a little house along the country road. There were dogs barking out in the yard. I didn't dare want to bother those dogs. I did not want them to come after me. For then I would have the dogs after me, as well as the man in the truck. I thought about going up to that house and getting some help to get home. But getting help wasn't part of my make-up for we believed in helping ourselves. I had gotten myself into this mess. I would have to get myself out of it. So, I went on past the house, desperately wishing that I could trust the people in it to help me out.
I got back out in the road after I left the farmhouse. I walked as fast as I could getting closer and closer to home but still not there. I made it another mile and I had just a little over a mile to go in order to get home. I was still praying, It was very dark now. I knew I was in trouble, and there did not seem to be a way out of it. I really did need God's help and I felt his presence there, letting me know he was willing to help me in any way that he could. So I kept going on walking faster, and praying all the way. God was giving me the strength that I needed to walk on.
I thought the man had gone on, when suddenly here he came off the side of the road, leaving his truck as it was as he came running toward me. The man came within two feet of me, and he was talking all the way. He was bragging that he had finally caught me. He was telling me that I wasn't going to get away this time. He was saying that he had me now and I wasn't going to get away. I was not sure what he had in mind. But I was praying hard to God to help me. And God did. This man had parked his truck on a sloping road. He had jumped out of the truck apparently, without putting the truck in gear, or setting a brake or doing anything to the truck. So the truck was left without a driver. The truck was just slowly moving toward the line of the ditch. The ditch outline showed that it was deep and dark, he wouldn't easily get the truck out if it got in the ditch. He would need a pull out of that ditch. He was in such a hurry to get to me that he forgot everything to do with parking a truck properly.
People, I say this is the way that God works. I pointed to his truck, which was slowly easing its way toward the ditch. His eyes shifted suddenly from me, to the truck, and he saw that his truck was rolling toward the ditch. He suddenly left me, and he started running after his truck. I left the place where I was at immediately. I began to run just as fast as I could. I went into the cotton and soybean fields. I was thankful for their roughness. I was thankful that the ground was frozen, and very thankful that I could run. I slipped and fell a few times going on home, but home was where I was going to be. When I reached the doors of home, I came through the door slamming it open hard. I came in breathless and I just stood there, very thankful to be there at all. Mom and Dad said. "There's no need to slam the door," but there was a need for that and I knew it. God had brought me home that night. Mom and dad will never know how glad I was to get there.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)IYou certainly know how to keep your reader in suspense! It is amazing what we went through and our parents never knew.I really did have this experience. I was nearly sixteen years old. It was frightening , but yes, I kept my composure.. It seemed to be easier after this event happened to me. I still love to walk after dark but with companions now
Whew- I'm so glad you kept your cool, and got away- It wasn't your time to leave here right then, you still had many things left to do. Thanks for an interesting article- Always- EllaI was nearly sixteen when this vent happened to me. I am so glad that you have read the article. It will always live in my mind too.Have you read the article I wrote titled-"This is Another Fine Mess I've Got Myself Into"
It's similar to your experience, but different- It's something that could have happened- and why it didn't. Mother was right again. :) Also- "modern Day Miracles" something that did happen- to someone else...and how it happened. Enjoy your writing- Will read more. Thanks- Always- Ella
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