Sammi worked really hard to establish her life on her own as a runaway thousands of miles from her mom, Rachel, and her mom’s latest boyfriend Roger.

It had not been easy traveling across multiple states with limited money she had earned babysitting. It didn’t take her long to realize it also wasn’t easy to find even the most basic job without any type of identification or a birth certificate. She didn’t know if her mom had reported her missing but not wanting to take a chance she took the first name of her beloved childhood dog, Sammi, and thought herself clever to take the sir name Shepherd. Sammi was a chocolate lab but she had never heard of anyone with the last name Labrador so why not have a last name with the same initial as her fictitious first name and one she could easily remember and hopefully quickly learn to respond to, so Sammi Shepherd she became.

Her real name was Holly, but she knew she needed to learn not to respond to that name should anyone be sent to find her. She went so far as to make an audio recording of her name and set the recording to go off unexpectedly and work on ignoring the sound of her own name.

It took every ounce of her courage to make the decision to escape the physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her mother’s most recent boyfriend Roger.

It still was difficult without any form of identification and especially since she ran away as a teen to find ways to make money all while trying to get as far away from home as she could get. She managed to get to the bus station by making the full five mile walk. She had saved just under $500 in cash but she knew she could not spend all of it on a bus ticket because she also needed money for food.

She bought a bus ticket that would get her three states away from home for just under $200 and to a city that was on three major interstates helping to hide the direction she headed should her mom or the police discover the bus she had taken.

From the bus station she walked towards one of the three interstates and with a lump in her throat she put her thumb out to hitch hike for a ride.

She was surprised that she didn’t wait very long before an eighteen wheeler tractor trailer stopped to pick her up.

Joseph Johnson was 58 and had been a long haul truck driver since he was 23. Over the years he had grown more cautious about who he was willing to give a ride to because it was not as safe to pick up even women because on occasion even they might pull a knife on a truck driver to steal his cash.

He made the decision that day to stop because of the size of the young woman standing on the side of the road in the black t-shirt with colorful screen print and black skirt with blue and purple designs on it. He got a chuckle off the high top sneakers she was wearing with both purple and white shoe laces.

When he was around her age, girls would not be seen in sneakers and a skirt. But he watched the small girl climb up into the cab of his truck. At just barely five foot tall Sammi appeared young for a teen. Besides her petite appearance Joseph was struck by her dark brown hair and the contrast of her her blue grey eyes.

“Where ya heading” Joseph asked watching the girl climb into the cab pretty sure she had either never done so before or if she had she only had a time or two.

“West” Sammi replied and he shrugged and shook his head at the lack of specifics but nodded agreement, motioned for her to take a seat and once she was safely seated he put the truck into gear and pulled back onto the highway. He also was surprised at the small size of the bag she was carrying and was pretty sure she had brought little with her. He continued and introduced himself, “I’m Joseph Willis from Pigeon Forge Tennessee.”

“Hi, I’m Sammi…Sammi Shepherd” she replied trying to sound confident in her made up name and intentionally not saying where she was from.

Joseph nodded at her answer, also noticing that she didn’t say where she was from. But he knew a young woman like her wouldn’t be hitch hiking if there wasn’t a reason so he accepted her answer at face value and said, “West it is” and he worked the large eighteen wheel monster back up to highway speed.

He was traveling with a full load and almost blew past the hitch hiker not wanting to risk her trying to rob him or worse try to hijack his load. But her tiny size, her clothing and lack of much of a bag with her told Joseph he was pretty safe picking her up. That was unless she was trouble of a different type. The one thing he was pretty sure of was that she was naive to the ways of the highway.

The first several minutes of the ride Joseph could tell Sammi was tense and on edge and in a way he was glad to see that as he didn’t think the young woman had any idea of how to stay safe on the highway so he put his favorite country and western CD on and quickly began to sing along with the music he had heard many times.

Sammi was startled by movement from behind her in the cab when suddenly a grey haired dog shoved his head and body forward giving her a good sniff and making her jump up off the seat quite a bit. It gave Joseph quite a chuckle and he quickly said, “No need to worry about Ol’ Jack, he’s too old, slow and friendly to hurt a soul.”

The grey blood hound gave Sammi a good sniffing and Joseph continued, “You’re sitting in his normal seat. That is when he’s not catching Z’s in back.”

Sammi could not only see the grey fur on the blood hound but also lots of silver fur around his face letting her know he was likely an older dog. Within seconds of sniffing all around her body his snout was in her face and he was licking her face and she couldn’t help but laugh.

Joseph couldn’t help but shake his head, the old blood hound could befriend any female within minutes and was already half on Sammi’s lap.

Sammi seemed to relax with the help of the music and the attention of Ol’Jack and Joseph continued to navigate the heavy truck down the highway. He couldn’t help glance over at the young woman sitting in the cab with him. She was uniquely lovely with her contrasting brown hair and blue grey eyes but he couldn’t help worry about how young she might be. He didn’t need any problems should a highway patrol officer pull him over and start asking questions.

As Sammi sat petting the old friendly dog and the country and western music played in the background her mind couldn’t help but think about why she was riding in a tractor trailer with a complete stranger.

[color=pink]Holly’s mother’s latest boyfriend Roger had only been living in their apartment for a few months before he started watching her and she was pretty sure some of her bras and panties had disappeared from her dirty laundry hamper when she later went to run a load of laundry later.

Shortly after that day when she though some of her undies had vanished one evening while preparing dinner minutes after her mom arrived home from work Roger raised his voice at Holly for slopping spaghetti sauce on the stove while cooking. When he barked at her in the loud tone of voice she replied, “I’m sorry! It’s not like I did it on purpose.” But before she got the last word out of her mouth his right hand slapped her left cheek hard enough to make a loud slap sound followed quickly by him shouting loudly, “Don’t talk back to me young lady.”

For a second the room was quiet but then he stepped to her mom, kissed her on the cheek and asked her, “How was your day?”

For a moment she thought her mom would defend her and tell him not to touch her, but she just responded to his question as if she didn’t see or hear the slap saying work had been stressful and she didn’t really want to talk about it. He gave her mom a hug of compassion and it was like the slap across the face never happened.

The next evening he was watching a game on the TV and Holly walked by him too slow texting on her phone with her mom sitting on the sofa reading a book and he grabbed her by the wrist, pulled her towards him and hit her twice hard on the butt and a third hit on the back of her bare upper thigh since she had on short shorts.

Once again the room was silent for a moment but he broke the silence demanding, “You’re not see through like glass. Don’t Lolly gag in front of the tube when I’m watching a game.”

She looked at her mom hoping for a reaction but her mom acted like she heard nothing and kept her eyes on her book. So she just stormed out of the room angry her own mother didn’t defend her.

Two days later before her mom got home she came home from school and dropped her book bag on the floor and tossed her jacket over the end of the sofa. This time, with just the two of them home he bolted in her direction, grabbed hold of her first by her hair and then by the back of her neck, pushed her towards her jacket yelling for her to pick it up and hang it up in the closet. She did as she was told and picked up her jacket and he the forcibly pushed her half bent over towards the closet. She turned the knob on the closet door, opened it and he pulled her standing straight up by the neck.

She hung the jacket up on a hook in the closet. The moment the jacket was hanging in the closet he yanked her out still with a hard grip on her neck. He then pushed her towards her backpack. The moment they were next to it his other hand swung and hit her on her lower belly below her navel causing her to bend over and knocking the wind out of her lungs.

“Pick up that fucking backpack” he commanded. It took her a moment to gather her composure, no one had ever hit her before in the stomach or anywhere. But she dug deep and somehow found the strength to pick up her backpack. The moment she had it in her hand he pulled hard on the back of her neck bringing her once again upright.

Then he pushed her hard towards the stairs, up to the second floor and her bedroom. He guided her fully into her room walking her to the desk and pointed at it and said firmly, “There is where you place your backpack when you come home from school. Put it there!”

The moment she set it on the desk he shoved her towards her bed. When they were a foot and a half away he faced her towards her bed raised his food and planted it squarely on her but half kicking her and half shoving her to the bed.

Her thighs hit the mattress hard and her forward energy made her fall and collapse on her bed with a grunt.

He simply turned and walked out of the room. It was not the first time nor the last that he physically assaulted her until the day she ran away.[/color]

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