fifi’s graffiti

…And then we saw him bolt.
We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,
And we saw him, or thought we saw him, dim and gray,
Like a shadow….

–Robert Frost

My beautiful sixteen-year-old niece ran away three weeks ago. We haven’t seen or heard from her since the night she stuffed some clothes under her bed covers and silently stole away. She left a note taped to her computer for us not to look for her, saying we’d never find her, and that maybe she would call her mom someday to explain.

My brother and sister-in-law found my niece’s diary, which contained the usual teenage rantings about her parents not understanding her, but no other clues as to motive. They also found a handwritten note signed by “Anne” offering my niece a place to stay to get away from her “living hell” and designating a date to pick her up (the night she disappeared). The police were called, but they could not issue an Amber Alert since my niece apparently left of her own volition. They borrowed some photos and her computer but did not seem hopeful.

My niece had been in counseling over the winter after she attempted to run away with an older man she met online last fall, and after she called child protection services to accuse her parents of abuse when they thwarted her. I suppose this is the most likely reason she felt she was in hell. She seems to have taken only some clothes and her iPod; she forgot the iPod charger and left behind her ID. We have no way of knowing whether she is in terrible danger or if she is ok. I left a message on her Facebook page telling her she can come home anytime and we are all worried. I hope she reads it. I hope she comes home.