Aly & John in: “Escape in the Night” a Graphic Blog

Excerpt from Travelouge April 4th, 2009

I doubled the sheet back under itself and fashioned a quick clove hitch, and then secured the knot with two half hitches. I gave a tug against the radiator. The knot was good, but would it hold?

Alyson scrambled in the next room quickly packing our gear. I could hear her hurried footsteps as she frantically plundered the room and tossed our few belongings into the open suitcase. Time was of the essence. But what time had we? a half-hour? a few minutes? I couldn’t be for sure.

I unlatched the window, and slid open the pane. The damp coolness of the air settled on my skin as I peered out into the street. It was silent. That was good at least. Perhaps we will make a clean get-away after all. A “Clean Get-away”…Ha! There was nothing clean about it. There is only the hope that you can leave your mess of problems behind and maybe they won’t catch up to you in the next town.

Things weren’t always like this. Life was once very simple. straightforward. honest. predictable.
But now we were on the road. Life was more unsure and this made situations complicated. The truth had to be improvised out of necessity. I glanced at my half transparent reflection in the hotel window. “How much further can we go?”

Alyson came into the room holding our small suitcase in one hand while closing the latches with the other.

“Okay, I’m ready. How are things out here?”

I bent down and inspected the coil of bed sheet at my feet. I had seen this done in a dozen movies, but had never actually had the guts to try it. I gave each of the sheet bends one more test.

“Seems pretty good. Who goes first?”

We exchanged blank looks, each expecting the other to volunteer. Then Alyson quickly spoke.

“Wait! Shhhh!….Do you hear that?”

In the stillness of the moment, our attention was captured by the sound of faint foot steps in the hotel stairway. We froze straining to listen.

“Is it them?!?”
“I don’t know…shhh!”
“We have to go NOW.”
“Hold on a second. Listen.”

The footsteps continued ascending to the fourth floor and faded out of earshot.

“Let’s go!” I said grabbing the suitcase. I quickly tied it to the end of the bed sheets and lowered it out the window to the sidewalk three stories down. Thank God we were traveling light.

Below the street was still silent. I lifted one leg over the sill and put my weight against the radiator to give it a final test. The metal strained under my weight but the sheet held taunt. I crawled out the window and braced myself against the side of the building. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door!

“They’re Here!” Alyson whispered. Hand over hand, I lowered myself down below the ledge and stopped to wait for her. Without hesitation she crawled out the window, grabbed the rope, and let go of the sill. The radiator gave a slight lurch from the tension of our combined weight.

The knocking against the door inside grew louder. Then accompanied by the rattling of the locked door knob.

We practically slid down the bed sheet rope. The dry fabric burned my hands.

“Don’t look down!” I called up.

It was only three floors, but it seemed a dozen. The knocks turned into violent slams giving Alyson a startle. We were almost there. The pounding against the door grew heavier and more intense . I could see windows in separate rooms come alight from the disturbance. “God! They’ll wake up the whole hotel!” Just as I felt the toe of my shoe graze the pavement below, a loud crash came from the room above. They had kicked the door in.

It wouldn’t have taken them long to spot the bed sheets tied to the old radiator. And barely seconds to cross the room to the open window. It doesn’t matter though. By the time they were there, we were already long gone. Escaped into the night.