episode 1 – lost innocenceA young girl grapples with a fractured family, setting the stage for lifelong consequences.
A young girl grapples with a fractured family, setting the stage for lifelong consequences.
⚠️ This story delves into the unsavory outcomes of runaways who must adapt to the streets, endure manipulation, and endeavor to survive by taking advantage of others, with the possibility of discovering love along the way. Subject matter requires viewer discretion.
A Childhood Disillusion
CHARACTER BACKGROUND FOR BLUE SERIES
IN a suburban area with large homes, families raise children with farm animals not far from the big city. Sandra and her sister Debra enjoy a life brushing and riding their horse. Bedrooms are filled with every toy imaginable, and their father’s hugs assure them that anything their hearts desire is attainable.
But their favorite dreams have been of the ocean since she got her first turtle. One family vacation looms especially large in Sandra’s mind—a trip to Jamaica, a promised tropical paradise, yet unfulfilled.
“We’re really going, right?” Sandra asks her father with eyes wide and gleaming. She listens to the island’s distinctive music and has spent weeks flipping through brochures of pristine white beaches, turquoise blue water, and colorful markets.
“We’ll make it happen, sweetheart. Soon,” her father promises, though the details remain vague. Soon, like many other things, the dream dissolves into the fights that now fill their home.
This unrealized dream of Jamaica lingers in Sandra’s mind, becoming a place of escape in her thoughts—somewhere she would run to when life feels unbearable.
With a stopwatch, Debra times Sandra galloping on their horse, while shouts and shattered dishes echo from the house. Their mother, Reba, soon establishes a pattern of telling the girls to go outside before the parents argue.
Then the body language suggests a rift. When the females sit in the family room for television, and the father enters to join them, Reba leaves the room.
These fissures widen when Reba tells the girls that they are leaving their father for better conditions. Their life of privilege suddenly compacts into a cramped apartment. While Debra provides emotional support for the mother, Sandra feels cheated and confused.
“Why can’t we visit Daddy?” the youngest of the girls asks.
“Your father only thinks of himself.”
“But, Momma, he gave us so much.”
“You’re too young to understand how manipulative men can be. Now go help your sister prepare dinner.”
A Nomadic Life
Instead of riding a horse in a wide open space, the girls’ time outside of school is spent doing chores within a tiny apartment. To Sandra, their situation is like Cinderella without a prince.
She overhears telephone arguments where Reba demands money from their father. Every few months, they move to a new apartment and start over.
When Sandra asks for gifts like the ones she had back home, Reba says, “If you’re going to pay for something, you should enjoy it. You had too many things you didn’t use.”
The nomadic lifestyle isn’t appealing to Sandra, who only hears one side of the conflict, wondering why her father is cast as the villain. One warm evening, she steps outside to test the weather, thinking what it would be like to camp outdoors. It doesn’t seem bad. So she gets a blanket and props herself on the porch for the night.
In the morning, Reba is frantically running around the house, thinking one of her girls has been kidnapped. When Sandra walks in the front door, her mother runs to embrace her.
“Oh, my sweet Baby, did you get locked out? Did someone do… something to you?”
“No. It was a warm night, and the cool breeze outside felt nice. So I decided to sleep out there.”
Reba’s affection turns to rage when she discovers the action was voluntary. “Girl, don’t you know how cruel the world is? A wandering man could have done things to you.”
“But nothing happened, Momma.”
“Nothing happened—this time. Don’t ever do something so stupid again.”
The contrast from affectionate embrace to belittlement accentuates the life of plenty and the apartment of meagerness. Sandra gets ready for school, thinking all day that perhaps her mother is the one representing evil. Her father would likely welcome her with open arms and shower her with gifts.
A Heartbreaking Discovery
With a three-day holiday weekend, Sandra decides to fluff bed pillows under her blanket in the shape of her body. She then treks to her father’s house under the cover of darkness. It’s many miles away, causing her to get lost a few times and fall asleep on the sidewalk when she gets tired.
She uses her key to quietly enter the house. The sun hasn’t come up yet, so she tiptoes to cherish the bedroom she grew up in. To surprise her dad, she hopes to sneak into bed with him for a protective embrace. However, she finds he’s not alone.
Sandra immediately closes the door, hyperventilating from shock, as she escapes to her childhood bedroom.
“Maybe Momma was right all along,” she ponders while feeding her turtle in the aquarium before burying her head in the pillows. “I just didn’t want to believe it.”
In the morning, her father tries to explain his actions after discovering his daughter in her room.
“Sandra? When did you get here?”
She awakens groggy from a strenuous evening. “Sometime last night. I dreamed you were with someone besides Mom.” At that moment, she hears the toilet flush from down the hall. “It wasn’t a dream. Was it?”
“No, Sweetheart. I still love your mother and you. Adults have… needs. You’ll understand when you’re older.”
This is the ultimate betrayal of her mother, her sister, and herself. Now, Sandra is mimicking her mother’s arguments. “I understand that your family is replaceable.”
“That’s not true. I’m not in love with the woman who’s here.”
“I came for your hug. What if I had climbed under your covers while you were doing… that… with her? I don’t want to hear anymore,” she shouts while running outside with her knapsack, leaving her house key behind.
Peter shouts back as she bursts through the front door, “Wait! How did you get here? Do you need a ride home?” But she keeps running as far and fast as she can. He wonders if he should chase her, but decides to let her go.
When Reba phones, Peter tells her that Sandra just left and he thinks she is heading back to her. This leads to another argument. Hours later, Sandra is at neither home. By nightfall, the vulnerable young girl is hitchhiking and sleeping on bus benches.
Continued…
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