I Guess After All This Time I'll Never Grow Up,

I was 14 when I ran away from home. A man picked me up outside a McDonalds, took me to a motel so I could shower snd was my hair. At a Target he bought me clean clothes. Then he drove me back to my home. My parents accused him of taking me, they wouldn't listen. He told me that when I grew up he would come for me. For now, he said, behave and stay in school, He told my parents he held them responsible.

I finished high school and went to cosmetology school. My mother is a hairdresser. One day when I got home he was there, waiting, Since I was grown up, he had come to get me. He took me out of state to live with his mother and go to college. He left me with her, to behave and go to school.

I saw him for the holidays, and he always came for my birthday. When I asked him what he wanted from me, me always said he would tell me when I grew up. After college I went to work in town. I had permission to go see my parents, but that wasn't my home. My home was where he wanted me to live. I remember for my thirty year old birthday, we had fixed a real dinner, I asked him what he wanted with me. When you are old enough I will tell you, he said.

Now I'm forty, I still don't know if I'm grown up. I don't know what he wants. I'm married and have two children. When I got married he gave me a house. I see him for the holidays and my birthday. He makes sure I have money, cars, school for my children. His mother calls my children her grandchildren. I stopped worrying, to him I will never grow up. I will never know. oh yeah, behave. Always behave.