Episode 125 -The Great Escape

In 2001, a young man escapes taking a final exam in high school. 20 years later, he's still on the run.

Story by: Anthony Vorndran

Story Producer: Aaron Calafato

Audio Production: Ken Wendt

Original Art: Pete Whitehead

Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce

Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran

*Short Music Segment: The Great Escape by Boys Like Girls

TRANSCRIPT

TheGreatEscape.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe

Hey everybody! Listen, make sure to stay tuned to the very end of this story, because there's going to be an announcement about a bonus episode that's connected to the story you're about to listen to, and you're not going to want to miss it. So stay tuned for that.

You know, I think sometimes some of the best stories you hear come from our closest friends over the phone. You know what I'm talking about? Just two friends over the phone, legendary conversations. I call these people who are good at phone conversations and stories. I call them phone call-storytellers. And if you're lucky to have one of these people in your life, you're very lucky. Now, one of my dear friends, Anthony Vorndran, is a fantastic phone-call storyteller and storyteller in general. He's a friend and a creative consultant for this podcast. He's done a guest 7 Minute Story last year called "Japan". And every time he calls me and we talk weekly, sometimes daily, we've been lifelong friends.

Every time he calls me and says, "hey, you got a few minutes?" I get so fired up because I know he's going to paint a picture with his words. And some of his stories are the most entertaining. So, I figured, why not record one of our phone conversations and one of the stories that he tells me during one of those conversations so that you can hear what I get to hear on a weekly basis. So I did that. And let me set the stage for you for this story:

So, Anthony calls me and we're just talking about high school. And then he says to me, "did I ever tell you about the time where I probably became the most wanted kid in our high school?" And I said "what?" He said, "yeah, during senior year, did I ever tell you that?" I was like, "no." So, Anthony goes on to say that he was excited to graduate. He was in cruise control. He was ready to move on to the next phase of his life. And he said, I quote, "If I'm being honest at that age and at that time, the only thing I was worried about was band practice, eating Taco Bell. and if my skinny jeans matched my boots." End quote! And so Anthony is well on his way to graduating, but he had to get through one more class. And the name of the teacher of this class, her name was Mrs. L. And one day he walks into her class thinking it's just a normal day and then something happens and I'll let Anthony take it from there.

I'm sitting in class. And my buddy that day, Doug, he was sitting to my left. And he's like, "hey, what's going on?" I'm like, "Nothing. Just chillin man. Enjoying my Gatorade." It was like sixth or seventh period, which means the day is about to end. The sun is coming through the window. I'm ready to get in my car and cruise out of here. And he says... he says these words to me, "are you ready for the exam?" (laughing)

So, Doug was a prankster, like he was a that guy. Like, I think you remember Doug. He's just funny, like always joking around. I had, like, a little bit of a hunch that he was joking at the time. And he's like, "I'm like, oh, that's funny, dude. Like, yeah. Isn't that going to be in a couple of weeks?" He's like, no "the final". Not only is it an exam, "the final exam". So. We're talking, this is it, this is it. Everything that I've studied in previous weeks and months came to this moment. And that's when I started, it started sinking in that he wasn't kidding. There really was an exam happening. I had no idea about. I, at that point, I kinda to go into survival mode or like fight or flight. Right? So I started scanning the class. I'm like, "where's the teacher?

You have gone into tunnel vision! (laughs)

I have gone into tunnel vision. OK. I'm scanning. I'm looking around. I'm like in the enemy trenches or something. I'm scanning at this point, I, I see the teacher moving a big stack of stapled papers. Right? Which which to me was like, those are exams. She's going to pass these out. Doug, he could have. I think he was trying to talk to me. I don't know what he was saying. I didn't even care. I don't care what anybody saying. You could've handed me 100 dollar bill. It didn't matter. I'm getting out of there. I saw the window. I took it. Grab my bag. Grab my Gatorade. And I took off (laughing)

I, I got to the door. I opened it, I quickly shut it. So, at this point, I got to get out of this building immediately because I felt like I just broke out of jail. I felt like a fugitive or something like in the movies. Right? So, I'm like, I'm scurrying across the hallway and I'm just looking, there's people everywhere. There's teachers there's students. I didn't care. I needed to get out of the building.

And I felt like I was being watched by everyone.

So, I'm halfway to the doors. It felt like an eternity to get out of the building. And I hear. (alarm sound)

"Tony Vorndran, please report to the office, Tony Vorndran, please report to the office."

They're coming after now. They've called the dog's. I remember looking back at that point, I was waiting for somebody to come after me. I don't know if there was security in the building. Sometimes there were police officers that were that were like on staff during the day. I thought I was done. I ran. Somehow I got through the doors. It was almost like, uh, you imagine in the tunnel vision, like maybe the doors are going to close in on me and I'm going to have to, like, do this epic slide like get out.

But that never happened. But it's kind of funny to think about. I got outside. I got to my car. Took a deep breath, feel like I'm reliving the moment, like literally I'm there again. I drive. I drive home. I felt. I felt like I escaped the situation. I'm like "I'm good." I didn't take the exam. I didn't, I may or may not have gotten caught. I don't know what's going to happen at this point, but I knew that I got out of that situation.

You escaped! From what you understand. You escaped. You had a situation and you have a tunnel vision. The only goal was to escape. And now, now you're in the getaway car!

I'm in the (laughs). I'm in the getaway car. I felt like a fugitive. I remember even looking around. Are there cops around me? Like cops are going to come after a kid who skipped out on an exam! I had it in my mind. "Oh, my God. Is that an undercover cop behind me following me. I didn't know what was going on. Who knows, was Mrs. L, my teacher, maybe she was coming after me? I have no idea.

So, I make the twenty minute drive back to my house at the time. And I pull into the driveway. Get out of my car, grab my backpack, grab my Gatorade. Think I had a fudgeround. That was like my favorite snack ever in high school. Grab my fudgeround. Walk into the doors of my house...

You would think that would be a sense of freedom. I'm home, hope I'm safe. I look straight ahead and there's my mom. My mom's standing there. She's got her arm at her side. And, you know, like I knew at that point, I know..My mom is my mom. I know when there's something going on. She looks at me and she says, "Your teacher just called here."

"I'm like, I'm like, what if she have to say" (laughs)?

"She said that you skipped out on the final exam and you darted out of school. They tried to stop you. What's going on?"

And you know what, at this point, I'm not going to make up any lies, you know, I'm going to shoot my mom straight. I told her, I said, "listen, here's reality. I didn't prepare for a final exam, which I was most likely not going to pass." I believe I needed those credits to actually graduate. That's the scary part here.

So, I tell my mom, like I was going to fail the exam. I had no choice. I had to get out of there. So, she's like "your teacher told me that she's going to think on this overnight and she may or may not let you take that exam. They don't have to. They can stop you from taking it since you skipped out."

And I'm like, oh, my gosh, you know, I didn't sleep that night. I remember just being so nervous, like, how am I in this situation? And she ended up letting me take the exam. She found it in her good graces to say, I'm going to give you a shot. I'm going to let you take it. I took it and passed the exam. I graduated high school.

Stories over, right? Like, you don't ever think about this anymore?

You would think that... (laughing). Aaron, you would think that this would be chapter closed, book closed, but guess what? That was a nightmare, twenty years ago or so. Story hasn't ended. The story is not ended Aaron. I have reoccurring nightmares that I am in that class. That I have to take that exam, not only the reoccurring. these happen on a monthly basis. Aaron, I don't know if I've left senior year of high school. When I go to sleep at night, I go back in time.

I go back and relive this. I wake up, I know this sounds crazy, I wake up in cold sweats that I didn't graduate high school or I'm not going to graduate high school. And I wake up, Aaron I don't know if you ever had this, but you just like, you just wake up in a cold sweat and you're kind of breathing hard. And you say to yourself, "oh, my gosh, thank God that was a dream."

But this dream never goes away. How do I close the chapter? No pun intended. How do I close the chapter? Right?

(Music)

I love how he ends this with a question: "Aaron, how do I close the chapter, Aaron, how do I end this?" The guy thinks he has escaped this moment 20 plus years ago. The reality is, he's still in a living nightmare to this day. But here's the thing. Something happened after we recorded this phone conversation. And, in fact, there's another chapter to this story and we wanted to share it with you. So all I can tell you is it's going to be in the form of a bonus episode. And we're titling it the Great Escape part to the reunion. And today's launch date for this episode is Thursday, April 1st, and the Great Escape part to the sequel to this. This bonus episode will be available Monday, April 5th. So just in a few days.

So make sure you catch that wherever you listen to seven minute stories, whatever platform we hope you enjoy and we'll talk to you soon.

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