Free Plans Change by Juli Robin

I'm going to be star.  Well, that's what my plans were anyway when I left home. I was setting out to reach my goals, to follow my dreams.  Living in Iowa there wasn’t a lot of acting jobs.  I acted in a lot of small plays and in our local acting clubs. 
     
    Oh how I loved to act!  I loved pretending to be someone else.  It let me hide behind a character. My life couldn’t be less exciting.  I was pretty much a homebody.  I didn't have any close friends.  I even went to our local college for a year, but that didn't seem to be a good fit for me, either.
     
    I guess that is why I so desperately wanted to be somebody else.    I needed to move to Hollywood to become a real actress.
     
    It took quite a bit of time but I finally convinced my parents to let me take a shot at the big time. I think my parents thought that I needed to get away from here and find out what I really wanted to do with my life.  They knew that I believed acting was the only thing that I really loved and they were willing to at least “pretend” they were happy with my decision.
     
    It would be awful hard for them now to tell me “No, you can’t go”, or “You have got to be out of your mind” or “You are way too young; you don’t know what you are doing” since they spent the last 19 years of my life telling me, “Emily, you can do what you want to do and be who you want to be, and don’t ever let anybody ever tell you anything different.  Not even your parents.” I bet they are wishing right about now they could take that advice back but what’s done is done.
     
    A week later I packed up and got ready to head on out. By the time I opened the car door and got in the front seat we were all crying, especially my dad. He was extremely emotional.
     
    “Call home every time you stop for gas, OK, Emily?”
     
    “I am not going to call you at every stop but don’t worry, dad, I will call,” I said. “Gotta go. See ya and I love ya.”
     
    I had planned on driving straight through to California, but while driving through Wyoming, at night, my car broke down.  I couldn't get any reception on my phone.  I didn't have any idea what was wrong with the car and I was stuck in the middle of nowhere.  I didn't know what to do.  I finally saw a light in my rear view mirror.  The vehicle slowed down and pulled in behind me. To say I was scared at this point would be an understatement.
     
    “Please be the police,” I said to myself as I locked my doors.  Hopefully, I wasn't going to get killed by a serial killer.  I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths trying to relax myself. 
     
    I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard a door slam.  My eyes popped open and looked in my rear view mirror.  Someone was coming toward my car.  It was a very big someone. 
     
    I kept muttering to myself to stay calm.  When the person tapped on my window, I let out a little yelp of surprise.  I rolled my window down just a little. 
     
    The voice asked, “Do you need some help?" 
     
    “My car broke down and now it won’t start,” I said to the massive stranger.
     
    "The nearest garage is over half an hour away,” he said. “And besides, they aren't open this time of night.”
     
    I just sat there, not saying a word.  I needed to pull myself together in a hurry because I was just about ready to fall completely apart.
     
    “Miss, can you hear me?” he asked.
     
    “Um, yes,” was about all I managed to say.
     
    “My name is Jason Larson,” he said. "You can't stay here all night. It's not very safe and it gets really cold here once the sun goes down." 
     
    I didn't want to stay here all night by myself. I was getting cold, had no reception on my phone and I was scared.  Really scared. But, I didn't know this man and I didn't want to get out of my car. 
     
    "Why don't you come home with me tonight?  I can call the garage in the morning and have them come out and look at the car for you," Jason