The First Days

Unless you've prepared your disappearance well in advance or have a lot of money, you may have trouble finding a place to sleep until you get on your feet. A surprising number of disappearees stay with friends or relatives the first couple of nights. This is usually a mistake. These are the first places someone will come looking for you. Also, you leave a trail that could be easy to trace. A great deal of pressure may come to bear on your friends or relatives once you're gone if the people looking for you have good reason to suspect they gave you safe harbor.

One interesting exception to this rule was a disappearee I talked to who moved in with a former girlfriend. He claims he picked his destination city more or less at random. Once there he discovered that his old flame lived in that town. After a couple days of putting up in boxcars for the night he decided to give her a call. She invited him for dinner, which turned out to be one of those sentimental red-wine-and-candles affairs. Love was kindled anew, the upshot being he moved in for an extended stay.

"What story did you tell her to account for your new identity?" I asked him.

"Oh, I told her that I went through bankruptcy and my attorney told me I would never be able to get credit or do business under my own name again, so I adopted a new one. It was pretty thin, but people believe what they want to believe, and she wanted to believe that every word I told her was the truth."

"So what happened after you left her place?" I asked.

He chortled loud, clear and joyous. "Hell, I never did leave! We've got two kids in school and now both of us have damn good jobs. No sense in splitting on a problem-free situation, is there?"

Taking up with a member of the opposite sex is actually a pretty good idea for the newly disappeared. Of course, shacking up with an old girlfriend is not a good idea for most people, because they will know about both of your identities and if things don't work out as well as they did for the fellow above, your spurned love may go running to the people you are trying to get away from.

A stranger in a bar who doesn't know anything about your past--only your present--is another thing altogether. They may provide you with food, shelter and a mailing address while you're getting your new identity established. And if things turn sour and you haven't told all about your former life, you won't have to fear any anonymous letters to your ex-wife, or whoever.

Shacking up with someone sure beats sleeping on a park bench. As I noted in an earlier chapter, living off the street is not a very good idea for the newly disappeared. You are likely to be surrounded by an assortment of petty crooks and drifters. This crowd is carefully watched by the police, lest they start to infect the decent folk of the town who pay the taxes that pay their salaries.

If you're really down on your money, a mission is a much better place to stay than on the streets. Contrary to popular opinion, they aren't just for drunks and bums. Many a vanisher has spent his first few nights as the guest of the Salvation Army. They've assisted many, many people who are looking to make a new start in life, and they aren't inclined to make embarrassing inquiries.

When all is said and done, there is no substitute for money when undertaking an identity change. I know of one disappearee who went so far as to take out a second mortgage on his home to finance his leave. There are many places one can go with money, and cash seems to answer all those prying questions with more authority than half-a-dozen credit cards or other pieces of ID. Many people have enough money to travel when they disappear. In fact, the desire to travel is one of the main motivations to disappear (when combined with family and other problems). And travel is an excellent choice, for it allows the disappearee the time and peace of mind to consider his possibilities and chart a new course.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 876