Free Disappearance by Ryan Wiley Page A

possible. I once waited months to get my wisdom teeth remove because I hated the idea of having surgery. My teeth were rotted black! When I finally got the surgery I wondered why I hadn't done it sooner.
    I make my way to the garage and pull the door up. I almost forget my car is still at the grocery store and I get to drive Abby's car.
     
    As I pull into the department store parking lot, it's still hard for me to get used to the lack of cars around. You never fully understand how large a parking lot is until you see it completely empty.
    I pull up right next to the sliding glass doors. I've come a long way in twenty-four hours; yesterday I wouldn't even park in a handicap spot. I try the doors to see if they swing open, and when they don't I waste no time getting the shovel out of the trunk. Batter up! I get into my best baseball swing stance, ready to unleash my full force into the glass door. I take a side step forward and swing with all of the effort I can muster. The swing lets out all my frustration the last day has caused me. There's a thud but not the sound of glass being broken that I was expecting. "Damn it," this is some strong glass; I barely made a scratch. I take another swing but get equal results. I take a swing at the other side of the door but it's made from the same heavy-duty material.
    Well this is not what I was planning for! What am I supposed to do now? I thought this would be the easy part, with walking around in a dark, smelly department store being the difficult part. I'm left thinking of other options to get in.
    I really don't want to be stuck in this town eating nothing but cereal and leftover peanut butter forever. I have to find a way to get in. I look over at Abby's car and an idea strikes me. Just like they do in the movies, I'll slam through the front entrance with the car. This idea sounds nuts and I remind myself this isn't a movie. It will destroy the car. If it was my car I wouldn't care but this is Abby's very nice - and very expensive to insure, by the way - black BMW. Knowing my luck I wouldn't break the door and instead cause a self-inflicted head-on collision, destroying the car - and my neck - in the process.
    I contemplate the pros and cons and decide that crashing the car through the door is my only option. This is absolute craziness, but I always say desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm usually kidding when I say this right before I'm about to do something really stupid, and this would fall under one of those occasions. Another one of my favorite sayings, "you only live life once," gives me the motivation I need to get started.
    I get in the car and buckle up, safety first. Thinking as rationally as possible, I decide to back into the door as opposed to a full, head-on crash. My thinking is, with the impact, if I hit the door going forward and stop abruptly, my head will go forward and get whiplash. But if I back into it, my head will just hit the back of the seat. Also, I prefer the idea of causing massive damage to the back of the car instead of the front. Maybe that's because the engine is in the front, and I want to eliminate any chance of the car blowing up. Causing damage to the back of the car will also be much easier to ignore while I'm driving. I've got enough on my mind, and driving with my front windshield gone isn't something else I want to deal with now.
    I start the engine and I decide to do a test run at a low speed to see if that will be enough damage. After all, there's no reason to go crazy and cause massive destruction if you don't have to.
    Starting from only about five yards away I ease on the gas and slowly back my way into the door. I hear a loud crash, which sounds like the back of my car being destroyed. My heart rate starts to pick up. What a stupid idea! I've probably just inflicted thousands of dollars in damage to Abby's car. I'm sure there's a loophole my car insurance company can find about attempted break-ins.
    I move the car up to