The little girl began to sob and Erik held her. After several minutes Erik let her go.
“Listen, little girl. I understand that you were stuck in a crappy situation but you can’t run off.” She said nothing and Erik just frowned dropped his hands and walked back to the car.
“If you want to run away then go, but I’m going to drink a couple warm beers and drive into the city because I really have nothing better to do. I really don’t care if you want to come with me,” Erik reached into the back seat and searched blindly for the beer but failed to find it. He looked back and found them on the floor. He grabbed a couple, set one on the seat and opened the other. The girl stood quietly crying. Erik’s heart broke but what kind of responsible adult take a kid into a suicidal drive into hell.
“What kind of responsible adult watches his wife drive away to her boyfriend and says nothing?”
“Not a conversation I want to think about,” Erik warned his quiet, angry conscious.
“Truly, you are not a responsible adult and not a parent. Just drive away.” Erik pushed the gas pedal to the floor startling the young girl but she then did something surprising and quickly ran to the passenger seat and got in.