Tippy, Chapter Eleven

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

Continued from last week.

It took us the rest of the fall of 1968 to get to Hillsboro. I was losing weight, but the chicken wasn’t. I tried to figure it out.  

Of course, I was not eating much. But it turns out the chicken was flying out to the Landmark grain elevator and eating to her heart’s content.

We had a discussion at the Western Southern Life document depository, right where Route 124 and U.S. 50 meet on the east end of Hillsboro. Of course this was in the dark. The chicken said our objective was to come out the west side of Hillsboro on U.S. 50. 

Of course, that was too simple. I might get caught by a human if I just walked Main Street through town, even at night.

My retort was I had made it through Marshall.

“Not without my help. And Marshall is a much smaller place than Hillsboro!” she retorted.

Her plan was that I would stick to the back streets and alleys and still only move at night.

“OK,” I said, “but you have got to find me more food.”

She said she would and that it was easier to find food in the city than out in the country. I didn’t know, I had to trust her.

It took us all winter to get through Hillsboro. The chicken would go down this street and that street trying to keep me off the busy places. And, of course, I was only moving at night.

Along about mid-winter, we were having one of our discussions and I asked, “Do you have any idea what you are doing? At this rate, Jim could have grandkids in high school by the time we find him and Pete.”

“Give it a rest, I am doing the best I can. You are eating well, now, aren’t you? You haven’t been caught by a human yet, have you?”

I had to admit, she was right.

Then as if she could read my mind, she said, “It took Moses 40 years to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness.”

I didn’t know who Moses was, and I didn’t care about the wilderness unless it led to Ivy Hill Drive.

We got to Robert Shaw Controls by April. The pads on my feet were very sore and bleeding.

To be continued.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.