OMG, Merced is so far away. It reminds me of a time before computers, we met some guys on the phone chat from Merced. A friend of mine and I pulled the exact same stunt except Merced is only 45 minutes from here. They were in their early 20's and we were 16 at the time. Back then, we thought older boys were so cool. Well the guys turned out to be major scary jerks so we left. We had no where to go since both our parents thought we were at the other's houses. So, we stopped at some rest stop half way between and fell asleep. I woke up at like 5am because I felt like someone was staring at me. It was all foggy and this homeless guy was standing at the hood of our car watching us sleep. It scared the piss out of us. We put the car in reverse and high tailed it out of there. I'd totally forgotten about that until you'd mentioned Merced.

Anyways, that is a hard decision. My brother Danny put me through a living hell when he was in high school. He was so bad and I was always scared for him.

At one point, he was missing for months. I was the one that he finally called to pick him up. He'd been living in a tree house in an orchard in Tracy for two months. He stunk so freaking bad like he hadn't showered. He didn't want me to tell our mom I'd seen him. It was hard to do, but I picked him up, and dropped him off at a friend's house. He lived there for another month or so before he decided to come home.

I am glad that I didn't break his trust. It was a rebellious stage for him, and I was the only person he trusted. He would have just alienated me too if I'd not been so open and forgiving. I would just always have talks with him, share my own experiences. He always knew he had a place to sleep, a ride, or any other kind of help he needed. I'd refuse to give him money, but I'd give him food.

For the record, Danny is now married with his first baby, a few dogs, many cats, fish, snakes, iguanas, and some beautiful rats. He is doing so well. I look at him and just thank God...I am sooooo glad that he turned out ok.