She kept screaming, not sure how long or how loud, she just knew that the noises of pure terror and pain refused to stop coming out of her mouth. When the men came she kicked wildly, threw punches where she could, and squirmed and wiggled in a way that kept her just free enough. Eventually, the screaming stopped and the urge to resist took over, and she kept moving, trying to get away, trying to wrestle free, trying to not look directly at the face of Mama waxy and blood spattered on the floor. 

She kicked one of them in the shins, and then in the bit between his legs where Tony had told her to never hit unless she absolutely needed to, and boy, she needed to now, so she did. And as the man let go of his hold on her one went to check on him and the other took a moment before realizing he needed to chase after her. And that's when she made her escape. 

The best part about growing up in the city was it became your playground. You knew it like you knew your times' tables, your nouns and verbs, and the address to your grandma's house. And with this knowledge of a youth spent without real adult supervision, Julia was able to slip away from the home she knew, where the strange men tried to keep her and may have hurt her Mama, and disappear. She wasn't the first kid from the block to vanish, Deano's daddy had a problem with drinking and love for beatin', so he and his kid sister left. Suzie up the road tearfully hugged her goodbye once last May saying her Uncle was bad, whatever that meant. She wasn't the first kid from Detroit to go missing, every day was another tragic tale, and a kid done being scared and ready to fight. 

And that's where she was,  scared shitless, in her urine-soaked dress and socks, scuffed shoes, and her hair matted and tangled. She had caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection of a car door and worried about how she'd ever get help looking like this. But her focus, for now, was to get away and hide. She kept telling herself it was just a game, it was just a bit of fun and Mama would come to find her tonight and they'd laugh and sing and she'd wash her hair. She was so young, but already lying to herself to keep her sanity. 

One of the Parks in the city had a grove of trees, that had never been cut down for expansion, and there the wild youth of the city had made a home away from home. Dirty mattresses, crates with unopened sodas, and bags of sorta edible food. She moved through the foilage and ducked into the hiding spot, thankful that she was alone. She opened a drink and started gulping it down. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand she put the empty glass bottle in the garbage pile and curled up on one of the mattresses. Pulling a ratty sheet over herself she stared at the green spring leaves above her, watching the light dance through them as the sound of her mother's voice carried on the wind. 

"Hush little baby, don't say a word. Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird."