Run Away Home

Received honorable mention in the 2012 Leapfrog Press Fiction Contest.

With a childhood spent bouncing between foster homes, Alissa Jacobs has always wondered what it would be like to be part of a normal family. But with a drug-addicted mom, a wanna-be thief for a brother, and a long-vanished dad, it’s not likely she will ever find out.

When Alissa learns that her mom is being released from prison and wants custody again, she decides it’s time to take matters into her own hands. Alissa and her older brother Trent head north to find the father neither of them remembers in one last ditch attempt to create an ordinary family for themselves.

But some things just aren’t meant to be and happily-ever-after may not be in the plans for Alissa. The journey from Bakersfield to Seattle is strewn with misadventures as she and Trent find themselves caught up in frightening situations, encounters with the police, and unexpected betrayals.

Alissa is forced to grapple with the unintended consequences of her decisions as she faces her deepest fears. And confronting questions she has long avoided may be the only way for her to break the bonds of her past.