The Truth Shall Set You Free — Shirley Kalpin-Olson

Tiffany age fourteen,lived with her drug abusing mother and her mother's abusive friends since she was three years old. The only help and companionship was a voice in her head which told her the truth would set her free. She knew there had to be a better life than what she had. She couldn't tell anyone what's happening to her in her own home, because one of her abusers, Frank is threatening her and her mother. She can't let that happen! She needs to get away! Her heart seethes with hate.One day, after being beaten by her step-dad so many times she made plans. Every time he beat her, he would come to her room and try to make up with her. She was ready for him this time. She packs her bags, fully dresses and with her heaviest weapon hid under the covers and waits. Two in the morning, in he comes. When he sits on her bed, she brings out the baseball bat and smashes it across his head with such a force she hears a crack, he moans and falls back. Tiffany takes his money from his billfold, grabs her bags and makes a beeline for the door and runs the two blocks to a city bus. Panting, she hops on and heads for the train depot. Hurrying she runs smack dab into a man, named Stan. She's very fearful, but when he treats her with respect, she is glad to have someone to converse with during the three days on the train to Orlando.
Arriving in Orlando late Tuesday night, they separate in the crowd shuffle and she is all alone, again with no plan. While waiting for a cab to a cheap hotel she notices a newspaper with the headline: Have you seen this girl? Her heart pounds as she sees her face on the page, and grabs it rushes to her hotel to finish reading: A fourteen year old girl, hit her step-dad over the head stole money and ran away from home. The police are searching for her. The family wants her home" The next morning she becomes a young blonde woman looking for a job. Days later, she starts a job as a server in a fancy restaurant, and loves it. She meets new friends, but always looking over her shoulder. She worked at the restaurant for several months, when Stan finds her to tell her that he is a detective. Fearful she has to go to jail, but instead he tells her that Frank, after he's released from jail, murders her mother. Tiffany is enraged, and sad. Stan offers to fly back with her to Pittsburgh and helps her with her mom's funeral and is there for her. After burying her mother, Tiffany goes to her house, and Frank surprised her. Petrified she sneaks out her upstairs window and gets away from him and heads back to Orlando and her job. While on the plane, Stan warns her that Frank is watching the Orlando airport. Bypassing Orlando she goes to Miami. Desperate and no job or money she lives in a rat-infested room and works in a smutty bar, with men pawing at her. One day a clean-looking man comes in and tells her he had a real job. Her workers warn her about maybe getting into prosecution. Desperate, she takes a chance on the job.
She goes to work the next Monday in a well-kept place as a real model. She loves her job and is treated with respect and works for six months. One day she comes to work and her boss is gone and the shop turned into a house of prostitution. She run again and this time, dresses as a fellow and works in the orange groves outside of Miami. At the end of the season, she is jobless and penniless again and living on the streets. Despondent she picks up a Miami Newspaper and notices a story about a Pastor who is starting a homeless shelter. Seeing a picture of the pastor, she realizes the picture looks just like the picture of her brother her mother gave her before she died. She quickly using her last pennies dialed the number.
On her 17th birthday, she finds her brother, her real dad the Truth and freedom.