“Lumayas ka!” my Papa said after another argument when I threw him hateful glances and spewed defiance at his face. With one backpack I left my parents' house in the middle of the night. Scared yet determined, I walked to the nearest phone booth and called my secret boyfriend. “Can you please pick me up?” Grateful that he was older than me, had a car and license. So what if Papa forbade me? I’d show him seventeen is old enough to stand on my own two feet. That night I didn’t know I wouldn't see my family again for years.
Fall Contest Editor’s Pick. I loved how strongly teenaged defiance and certainty/confidence came through via voice in RUNAWAY. The last two sentences, one after the other, were extremely effective.—SB
Elisa Rivera is a writer living in Boonwurrung country, Australia. She writes about her character-building childhood as an immigrant. Elisa dreams in both Filpino and English.