Have you ever felt like you just needed an escape from any situation or you house for a while or have you ever felt like you were being neglected? In the short story “The Ascent” by Ron Rash, the story follows the life of a boy named Jared. Who is in a household where both of his parents are drug users and though to their best efforts do not do the best at watching or raising their kid. Jared has make-believe time in the woods to escape home as he does he stumbles across a crash plane the cops have been looking for and inside he finds a man and woman dead. He steals the woman’s ring and the man’s watch. His parents take the ring and watch from Jared and then leave him to buy more drugs. As they do, Jared ventures off to the plane for the final time where he believes he is ascending above the clouds in the plane. Due to the actions of his parents and how life around him play out, Jared does anything to escape his life through the imaginary projections of his make-believe world that he puts himself in the same danger as his parents. Jared feels like his real life is too painful to live in which gives him the cause to try to escape to the woods/plane so he can be in his make-believe world. Since his parents continually try to raise him properly but fall short due to the fact they are major drug users. Also, there is a girl from his class who makes fun of him for smelling bad. The fact that Jared’s parents are drug users are addressed early with, “The glass pipe lay on the