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It was noticed in elementary school. The first time Miss Thursby called on him and he didn't know the answer, Doug leapt out of his tiny desk and ran from the room. They found him outside the city limits crouched in a ditch next to a culvert. When the cop who found him asked why he wasn't in the culvert he said he wasn't hiding. By the time he reached high school it was his defining characteristic. Doug was known as "that guy who runs away". He had a difficult romantic life. At his grad Doug accidentally brushed a knuckle (the second or "index" one) of his right hand against the left breast of his date while pinning her corsage. She attended the event alone. Doug was found the following Tuesday crouched next to a soft drink machine in a bus station in West Palm Beach, Florida. There was no record of his ever having crossed the border. He had a tough time holding down a job. In fact, he had a tough time landing a job. Often he would run from the interview. One time when hadn't brought a pen with him he bolted from a record store right after he was handed an application. One day people stopped looking for him. He would run away and his family or co-workers would just shrug and then go about their business. They soon realized that Doug always came back eventually. Sometimes work would go undone for a few days but he would catch up again when he returned. Everyone learned to adjust. It was just one of those things.
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