Without the Vista Cruiser, the journey to Chicago took several hours longer than it should have.
Eric had been to Chicago on several occasions; his parents had taken him every once in a while when he was younger, up until as recently as 1974, to see the finished Sears Tower. Since then, he'd been with his friends, to nightclubs once or twice, without his parents' knowledge. Looks like that streak was still going strong. He felt a tiny twinge of guilt when he thought of how distraught his mother would be when she finally realized he was gone. But the need to get out was greater than his guilt, and he tried -and failed- to put Point Place out of his mind. If he concentrated on it for too long, Donna might creep into his thoughts, and she'd never leave…and that was the opposite of what he was trying to accomplish by escaping…
His thoughts jumbled and drifted. For the first time, he considered what it was he was actually trying to accomplish by leaving. If Donna were really the only problem, he could just stay at home for the rest of the summer and avoid her. But why even bother? It wasn't like they had just broken up, they'd been apart for a while now. Even if they did inevitably run into each other (for crying out loud, she lived right next door!) he could handle the pain and the awkwardness, right? And then sooner or later, things would more or less go back to normal. They always did.
But it wasn't just that. It wasn't just Donna.
This had been a long time coming.
While he did have a pretty good home life, Eric had been waiting to get out of his parents' house for a while now. Red made it abundantly clear that his career as their burden was nearing an end, despite the fact that Kitty wanted him to stay and be her baby forever. Red's constant "tough-love" strategy had worn thin, and the teen was reminded of his own words, uttered in anger some time before: "You get your shots in now, 'cause when I'm gone, I'm gonna be long gone!"
He had been talking about college, but that seemed so far away, and he supposed that running off to Chicago was similar…in fact, it was very similar. He was going to a bigger, more diverse place, after all. Just like college.
Donna had been hesitant to wear his promise ring because she didn't want to be tied down; she wanted to see the world and experience new things and lead an exciting life.
What she didn't know was that he'd always wanted the same thing: adventure and romance and everything that went with it. The only difference was, where Donna's adventure had no definite end, his plans always seemed to end back up in that dinky little Wisconsin town, to settle down and be a married, stable adult.
Chicago had jumped into his thoughts the moment he had told Hyde "I've got to get out for a while." He felt the pull to the big city growing even as he got closer, like a planet sucked into the gravitational pull of the sun.
If he really wanted to avoid Donna, and nothing else, he could have spent some time a few miles away, in Kenosha. Hell, he could have claimed he wanted to visit Aunt Paula or his grandparents, or even Uncle Marty, and his parents would have shipped him off for the entire summer. They probably would have paid for the trip, too.
But if this wasn't just about Donna, then what was this about, really?
There were a million reasons. It was about him and his sense of self, his identity.
It was about the fact that the small-town life had suffocated even Eric Forman, and when those friends, those family members, and even the love of his life had let him down, he realized he'd seen everything he would ever see there. (He'd go back eventually, of course. His careful nature couldn't handle any thoughts to the contrary.) But in the meantime, he couldn't even stand the thought of being within city limits, which surprised him most of all. He had all those arguments for going to Chicago, but he couldn't think of one reason for staying in his home town.
And then everything snapped into place in Eric's mind, despite the rattling his head was being subjected to as he leaned it against the window of the bus.
He had so many reasons for going to Chicago. He couldn't really name them all. In fact, he could name hardly any. But maybe that was the most important reason: he had things to figure out. Things to learn.
And Chicago seemed to be the best teacher for the job.
…...
Hyde slid the kitchen door back as quietly as he possibly could. He had waited at the Hub with Kelso and Fez for as long as they'd let them stay; once they'd kicked them out for the night, he took the long way back to the Forman House, hoping to the gods, whichever ones were listening, that Red and Kitty were asleep. They usually didn't wait up when the kids were out, especially during the summer, and Hyde prayed this would be the case tonight. He didn't know where Forman had gone, or how long he'd be roaming around, but there was no way that Steven was going to explain that to Red. He'd let Eric do that himself when he got back in the morning. A look at the clock on the wall told Hyde that it was just past midnight. Eric had only come to talk to him three hours before.
He froze as the door to the living room swung open and the kitchen light was flicked on. Kitty didn't see the teen right away, and when she did, she simply stopped to narrow her eyes at him in that mixture of suspicion and bemusement that she used so often.
"Steven, you're just getting home?"
"Hey Mrs. Forman," Hyde said, changing the subject. "What're you still up for?"
"Well," Kitty began, retrieving milk and cookies for him from the refrigerator and sitting next to him at the dinner table. "Couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about Eric and Donna. Did Eric tell you that she tried to take him back?"
"Yeah. He turned her down."
"Right, well, Red and I sort of lectured him about why that was so…"
"Stupid?"
"Well, yes," she admitted. "He felt pretty bad about it, and I thought he was going over to Donna's to apologize, but he hasn't been back since."
"I ran into him on his way out. Said he needed to get out for a while," Hyde said, electing not to mention how weird Forman had been about it. "We didn't see him or Donna at the Hub. He's probably just wandering around, or maybe he's with Donna and they're off talking."
"I don't think she's with him," Kitty disagreed. "Red ran into Bob while he was putting out the trash. Bob says Donna's been in her room all night."
Hyde nodded and finished the last bite of his cookie, as Red came in.
"Why are you still up?" he asked the two of them, sitting at the table and taking a cookie from the plate. "Eric asleep?"
"No, he's not home yet," Kitty said.
Red turned his attention to Hyde, annoyed. "Then where is he?"
Hyde leaned back in his chair and shrugged slightly. "Dunno. We thought he was probably just walking around town."
"If he doesn't get in by one o'clock, I'm going to kick-"
"Oh let him be, Red," Kitty admonished gently. "He's had enough trouble with Donna these past few months, he should be allowed to stay out and deal with his problems."
After a moment's thought, Red remarked, "Its weird he didn't take the Vista Cruiser."
After another moment, he added with a hint of suspicion. "Its very weird."
There was a beat of silence, then Hyde broke it by saying, "Well, I think I'm gonna turn in." He drained the last of his milk and stood up.
"Alright, sweetheart, goodnight," Kitty chirped, putting the dishes in the sink.
Hyde went downstairs, and Kitty followed Red upstairs.
However, she couldn't fall asleep, and instead chose to lie there and listen for the sound of the door opening. Even after Red's breathing turned to a faint snore, she glanced at the clock.
Worry set in when it was 1:30 in the morning and Eric had still not returned.
When she woke up at 9 and her son still wasn't home, that worry quickly turned into panic.
…...
It had never taken Eric more than two hours to drive from Point Place to Chicago. It was only a state away, and on such a random night like this, there was no traffic to hinder car-travel. But he wasn't driving. In fact, the trip was a mixture of walking, hitchhiking, and busing, and as a result, it took approximately 8 hours of travel before Eric saw city lights, which were accompanied by the faint glow of a threatening sunrise.
After a few minutes of walking and an hour of hitchhiking, the youngest Forman had chosen to hop a bus and ride it all the way to his final destination. In theory, it was safer than walking or riding with a stranger, though some of the characters that got on and off were pretty rough looking. Most, however, looked more harmless and burnt-out than even Leo, but Eric still tried to act "natural" and fretted over the safety of his small wad of cash hiding in his pocket behind a thin layer of sweater. He didn't sleep a wink on the bus. Maybe his dad was right, he was too twitchy for his own good.
He perked up some when they reached city limits. By the time he saw the Sears Tower come into view, his heart rate had picked up some. He'd seen it several times before, but never alone, never like this.
He hadn't realized how stiff he was until the bus stopped and he stood up, wincing at all the multiple cracks and pops he heard from his own joints. It had been the longest day of his life, and he was thoroughly exhausted.
Eric stepped off the bus, threw his bag over his shoulder, and looked around. The weather was fairly pleasant; a light breeze was blowing in, and the sun was coming up, though the lights of the city skyline had not yet dimmed.
And how beautiful the skyline was. The buildings in front of him were so big he had to crane his neck to see their tops. Office lights pretended to be stars in what was left of the darkness. People milled about, of all shapes and sizes, and most interestingly, of all colors. That was new. Most of Point Place was a white bread suburban town. The population was generally not racist, and Eric himself was not racist in the slightest, but there just rarely seemed to be anyone who didn't look or even dress the exact same as the next person. That was another thing. Each outfit was different than the last on the streets of Chicago. Some were outrageous, some demure, but each was accompanied by an afro or "Farrah hair" or the pin-straight, down the back hairstyle that was leftover from the late 60s. And the men here had hair lengths to rival even Kelso's. Eric could just hear his father's disparaging comments. That alone caused a small smile to appear on his face.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, hunching his shoulders, and turning away from the crowd of people exiting the bus stop, Eric prayed that his skinny frame would tell any potential muggers that he had absolutely nothing worth stealing. (He knew from experience that he looked like an easy target…that he was an easy target.)
The neighborhood he'd been dropped in didn't look too bad, even at night. Only a few blocks' walk found him a small, cheap-but-not-skeezy-looking hotel. The lady at the front desk was too chipper for someone working the ungodly late night shift, but he was too tired to notice, or to respond to her bright attitude with even a hint of sarcasm.
In fact, he was fading by the minute. it was a miracle he was able to find his own room, much less open the door and lock it behind him, because the moment his head hit the pillow, he was out.
