Bob Hobson watched television. It was quite an interesting program. A clown was dancing while scuba divers poured cereal on him from the rafters. Bob was a high school student. He wasn’t content with his life. He wasn’t doing very well in school; he was always fighting with his parents. He was bored with his life. Bob’s buddy Cleatus Ovalton was in a similar situation. He was better with his schoolwork, but he just wanted some adventure in his life. They decided to take a road trip over the summer, but why wait they decided. They could just leave town. They worked out a simple plan and soon it came into action. George Smith was one of Bob and Cleatus’s friends. He was relatively happy and he felt pretty good about himself and his dream job was to own a multi-million dollar ice cream business. On November 12 they left.

Bob’s parents were out of the house. He packed some food and some money into a duffel bag. He left his house that night. He walked about two miles to an abandoned parking lot. A large red van was waiting for him. The van’s door opened and out jumped Cleatus. “Are you ready Bobo?” He asked. “Let’s just go before we change our minds.” Bob replied. “Did you leave a note?” Cleatus asked. “Yeah now lets go.” Bob said as he jumped into the van. It sped away toward the interstate. Bob and George had previously bought a van from a friend of theirs and hide it in the abandoned parking lot. Their parents didn’t know anything about it. Bob and Cleatus had both written notes saying that they were going to meet on the city bridge and jump off. Meanwhile George Smith was sitting around wondering what his crew was up to. He picked up the telephone and dialed Bob’s number. It rang and rang for quite a while but no reply was to be found. George hung up the phone and called Cleatus, getting the same response as he had previously gotten from Bob. So he decided to play tennis instead, which he did in his back yard that had a tennis court within it’s perimeters. At that very time Bob and Cleatus were cruising down getting ready to cross the state line into Minnesota. It was late, about 11:45 when Bob’s parents arrived home. They found the note and thought it was some kind of jest. They were worried when Bob didn’t return so they called the local law enforcement officials.

Early the next morning George was waking up from a night of restless sleep. It was Friday and he had to go to school. He got some clothes on and grabbed his wallet and keys. He went outside and got into his car, then he proceeded to drive to school. “Where’s the biscuits?” Cleatus asked Bob. They had been driving for quite a while and hadn’t eaten during the whole time. Bob reached under his seat and pulled out a bag of biscuits. He handed one to Cleatus, who proceeded to eat the biscuit. It was a dry one, it was. He only wished he had brought butter with him after tasting the dry bread of the biscuit. The police had started a search for Cleatus and Bob. They didn’t think that they jumped into the river, so they had all the cars keep an eye out for them. Their parents were indefinitely worried.

They liked to eat cheese, they did. So Bob and Cleatus kept going, deciding to go to Illinois. Bob and Cleatus had been missing all weekend and the police were preparing to search the lake, incase they really did jump in. They didn’t know about the van or anything else. George was watching television on Monday morning. It was the Today Show and Al Roker was outside as usual interviewing people. George thought nothing of it, until he noticed something crazy. He saw Bob and Cleatus walking through a crowd of people. “No Way!” he thought. He knew it was them. It looked just like them. Except Cleatus had died his hair blond. He didn’t know if he should tell anyone. He knew must have left for a very good reason and he was one of their best friends. He thought about that all that day. What should he do, he asked himself.

Bob and Cleatus were in Chicago. They had gotten false identifications. Bob was Nick Vito and Cleatus was Chris White. They had been living in their van behind an abandoned grocery store. They were running low on food and they had a few thousand dollars between them. They needed to make a big decision. Stay in Chicago or keep going. They would have to settle sometime and get jobs to support themselves. George decided to go to Chicago and look for his lost companions. He waited until Friday and told his parents that he would be going to stay with his cousin Jack for the weekend. He didn’t go to visit Jack it all, in actuality he went to Chicago to search for Bob and Cleatus. When he arrived he had no idea where to look, they might not even be in the city anymore. They could even be in Canada, or the Solomon Islands. He thought. Bob and Cleatus were still behind the grocery store and they needed cash. It was 9:30 AM and they were sleeping when they heard noises outside of the van. It awoke them. So Cleatus, being the brave dude he opened the door of the van and saw...

an elderly man with a shopping cart. “Got any food to spare boys?” The man asked rather loudly. “Sorry, but we don’t have much and we need to eat it ourselves I tells ya!” Bob responded. “Ok boys, but I’ll have my eyes on you so watch out cause if I see that yar eatin’ food that you told me ya didn’t have I’ll hunt ya down and eat your livers for breakfast three days in a row!” The man said. Then he cackled and proceeded to run out into an alley, pushing his shopping cart all the while.

George had just arrived in Chicago. He didn’t know where to look, he went to the spot where he had seen Bob and Cleatus on television. Little did he know, they were just blocks down the street. They were beginning to regret their decision to leave home. They had no education, little money, no home, and their families had no idea where they were or if they were even alive. In addition to that, creepy old people were trying to get food from them. George had got a room at a nearby hotel for the night. The next morning he got up bright and early to search for his best friends. He drove around looking for them on the streets, he checked all the hotels and gave pictures of them to local shopkeepers and such. He just didn’t know how to go about finding them on his own. He spent the night in the hotel again. The day after he enlisted the help of a psychic, Helen Eshelbary. She saw that they were still in the area and were running low on resources.

Cleatus had just goten a job. Bob stayed with the van during the day while Cleatus put boxes into trucks. It didn’t pay a whole lot, but at least it would help.