And I was clear I was going to do that.

But I had not told my parents because I thought that they were going to intervene.

So my plan with the help of Snake and and and storing Lynn and others was that I wasn't gonna go home at the end of the school term, and I was just going to write my parents and tell them what I was going to do.

Um, I don't know to this day how the school found out that I was going to go and stay with snake people until it was time to go to Oxford, Ohio, for the orientation, which I was going to help to staff.

Ah, but, uh, pride to the end of the school term.

The, you know, the last week of school around 6 a.m. In the morning.

Ah, I was awakened with the tap on the door from the house, mother.

Ah, And when she open, when I told her she could come in, there was my mother.

Ah, and my stepfather and my uncle and they told me that they had come to take me home and I had no choice in the matter.

So that was a really shock.

And basically, you know, I had I had to pack right then.

And they have been informed by the school that I was not planning to go home.

And so they had come unannounced that, you know, and they took me home.

And so it was very I was very angry and upset, and my mother was very upset.

Ah, that it had come to this, you know, so to speak.

And, um, when I I I wasn't even able to make a phone call, you know, to let the people that snake know what was going on.

It was really a very we had they were moving quickly to get, get me into the car and get all my bags and and to go home.

So when I got home, I started making collect calls back to Atlanta, of course, to tell people what had happened.

And my grandmother, my father, they told me under no circumstances was I going anywhere.

And I was going to stay right there in Memphis until September when I go back to school.

And if I persisted with this, I'd have to go to school there in Memphis and one of the Memphis, you know, colleges.

Because obviously, I was under the influence of very bad people, and they met me.

No.

Good.

And so it was It was very angry and, um, painful time for my grandmother and my mother and my dad and myself because I was very angry with them, and I was constantly trying to make other plans of the arrangements.

And s o ah, Jim Forman and others sent a money order, sent money to my house so that I could cash it and get a bus and go back.

And my grandmother intercepted that mail, and I didn't even know it had come.

So when I was calling, like, I thought you were going to send me my fair.

I don't have any money, you know?

And they say what?

We've already sent it.

Didn't you get it?

You know, And then comes another confrontation.

And when my grandmother says it came and I'm not gonna give it to you, so then I had to make arrangements for them to send money again, but to someone else's house.

Ah, which they did.

And then I was able to get get the money order in, cash it and go to the Greyhound bus station and get the ticket all without them knowing when I was doing.

And of course, I was packing on the quiet and, you know, keeping a bag under the bed and the whole plan for the getaway.

And, um, I had a friend who was gonna pick me up and take me to the station.

And so at the point that I told them what I was going to dio, um I was told that if I did, I you know, I couldn't come back home.

So I left Ah, going back to Atlanta.

Ah, with the heaviest heart I can remember ever having because a part of me really wondered if I was doing the right thing.

And I was thinking that, you know, I'm sort of I'm giving up my family for this new family, and I don't you know, it was like I mean, you don't really know these people that well, you know, you work with them, you march with them.

You you know you might have gone to jail with them, but I mean your you, your whole life, you're gonna at this point, Are you really ready to have these people be responsible for you?

Because I was thinking You know what?

I don't have a job.

I don't have any money.

What am I going to do?

But at the same time, I felt I had to go, so I can remember crying the whole way to Atlanta on the bus.

And, um ah, I stayed with Starting and Alice Lynne.

Ah, while we were waiting to drive up to Oxford and, ah, you know, after a couple of days and being with the old gang and all like, I think I kind of began feeling pretty okay.