Chapter 23

Gracie stepped into the bus station. She set down the overnight bag she’d pulled out of the bedroom closet and rubbed her hand against her hip. Self-consciously, she re-tucked her blouse as she walked toward the ticket office.

“Gracie!” Erma Franklin called from the bench in the waiting area.

Startled, Gracie jumped. “Oh! Erma, I didn’t see you there.”

“I’m waiting for Corporal Ben Franklin. He’s home for the weekend. Don’t you love the way that sounds?” She repeated it raising her chin, “Corporal Ben Franklin.”

“That’s great. Please tell him I said congratulations.” Gracie took a step toward the ticket office window.

“Where are you going?” Erma asked with a coo.

Gracie looked down and then away, before confessing, “Louisville.”

Erma raised her hand to her face and covered her mouth but didn’t say anything. As if on the instant, Gracie’s prayer was answered; Mr. Carrier called for Gracie to step to the ticket window.

While Erma was chatting away with the others waiting for the bus to arrive, Gracie grabbed her bag and snuck outside to wait for the bus.

She glanced toward the closed sign, hanging on Swirly’s door, and knew that her grandfather wouldn’t approve. She was going to see Kage.

When the bus arrived, the driver stepped off first. Two men in suits followed him, and one handed him a tip. The driver responded appreciatively, “Thank you, Mr. Myers.” Gracie wondered what business they had in Ridgewood. When she saw Corporal Ben Franklin step off the bus, she turned away so as not to make eye contact and slid behind the two men in suits, so as not to be seen. Erma alone would be enough to spread the gossip of Gracie’s departure.

The bus driver yelled out to board the bus, “Put your luggage under here. Hurry up now.” He swung open the door on the lower end of the bus and two pieces of luggage fell out. Pulling Gracie’s luggage handle from her hand, he yelled to her, “Go on, girl.”

Gracie stepped onto the bus and walked toward the back sitting in the only empty seat. The older lady she had sat beside puckered her lips tightly, as if she had just sucked on a lemon, placed her hand on Gracie’s knee, and said, “Sweetheart, this seat is saved. My daughter is meeting me at the next stop.”

Looking around the bus, Gracie saw no other empty seats; her heart began to pound. She gave a timid smile to the lady who either did not sense Gracie’s discomfort or simply didn’t care.

Gracie stood and walked toward the front as everyone settled. As she looked from the bus window at everything familiar that she was leaving, she already missed it.

“You need a seat, young lady? You can sit right here on my lap,” a man said as she passed.

Gracie could see from the corner of her eye his brute body jiggling with coarse laughter as he looked to see who appreciated his humor.

“Take a seat!” the bus driver yelled.

At that everyone on the bus turned their heads toward Gracie.

“I’m not sure there is one,” Gracie answered, her voice too quiet for him to hear.

As she made her way to the front of the bus, the bus driver’s stare pierced her. “There aren’t any seats, just one, and she is saving it,” Gracie muttered.

“Ain’t no saved seats on this bus. What does your ticket say? You got a seat assigned to you. Can you read, girl?” The bus driver scoffed.

“Yes, I can read,” she mumbled. Actually, Gracie hadn’t realized there was a seat number on her ticket. She quickly struggled to pull the ticket from her sweater pocket. Not knowing where on the ticket to find the seat number, she handed the ticket to him. She could see the expression on his face as if he said, “So you can’t read.”

“31B,” he said. “That’s your seat by the lady in the back. Ain’t no saved seats!” He called again to the back of the bus and pushed the ticket at Gracie.

Gracie turned again toward the back of the bus as it pulled away. Her body swung with the bus, and she nearly did land in a man’s lap. He steadied her with his hand.

She mumbled, “Thanks.” He returned a simple smile, and she noticed his U.S. Army fatigues.

Sitting down beside the lady, Gracie said weakly, “This is the seat I’m assigned.”

The lady smiled, but it was not the gentle smile of the man in the service uniform. It was a familiar, condescending smile. “You can sit right here until the next stop. When Laura gets on, you can ride in her seat.” She spoke as if it would be Gracie’s privilege to switch seats with her daughter.

“I can do that.” Gracie looked at her hand in her lap still clutching the ticket.

“You don’t travel much, do you?” The lady asked, her voice sweet and condescending.

“This is my first time on a bus,” Gracie said, knowing that wasn’t news to anyone.

“How old are you?” the lady asked, twisting her head to take a good look at Gracie.

“I’m nineteen,” Gracie answered, looking away from the lady. As she fiddled with the button on her sweater, she felt more like eight.

Gracie noticed the lady staring at her left hand as it rested on her right arm.

“You can’t read?”

Gracie wondered if that was really the question she had on her mind.

“Yes, I read fine,” Gracie countered, though she realized the lady didn’t believe her anyway.

* * *

Kage twisted the metal watch band on his arm and glanced at the watch’s face, not even registering the time. Standing outside the doors of the bus depot looking down the road, he glanced away and back again as if in that second the bus might round the corner. Because he couldn’t sit still, he stood. When he could no longer stand still, he paced. She would be here, here with him, in just a few minutes.

Kage hoped that the rain would hold off until Gracie arrived, but soon it began to pour, and he could no longer see as far as the bend in the road. Kage backed toward the edge of the bus depot and then under the overhang that shielded him from the steady downpour. This worked until the wind picked up and a gust of rain blew over him, soaking him all at once. He ran inside.

The voices echoed in the bus station’s lobby. Kage made his way through the crowd, as he heard someone yell, “It’s here.”

He dashed out the doors into the rain. A few people followed, standing beside him as the bus came to a stop.

* * *

Gracie spotted Kage as soon as the bus door opened. His hair was soaked, appearing two shades darker, and his clothes were drenched. He wore a lightly starched, white, long-sleeved dress shirt—wet now, clinging so that his skin showed through. She’d never seen him look so handsome, his dimple obvious and his eyes intense.

Gracie’s new seat, once she’d traded, giving hers to the lady’s traveling companion, was on the second row. With only six steps, she found herself in Kage’s arms. He lifted her off her feet, his familiar arms tight around her waist. She could feel his cool skin through her blouse.

* * *

They looked like wet ducks when they arrived at Pearl’s; Gracie showered first and then Kage. Though Pearl wasn’t there, her apartment smelled of coffee and freshly sprayed floral perfume. The phone rang, and on its third ring Gracie decided to answer it.

“Hey, Pearl.”

“She’s at work.”

“I keep missing that girl. She ain’t called me back. This is Cecil.”

“Oh,” Gracie said. “You are Kage’s brother?”

“Kage? Which Kage brother? There’s several of us, little lady,” Cecil snorted.

“Benjamin,” Gracie said, liking the sound of his first name on her lips.

“Well, tell those two good-for-nothin’s for one of them to meet their brothers at the bus station this afternoon.”

As Gracie hung up the phone, she spotted a photograph of Pearl and what looked like one of Kage’s brothers. She ran her finger over the frame and then touched their faces just as she had done so many times with her sister Sarah’s photo. What she would give to be able to see Sarah again. At that moment with that thought, she was jealous of Kage. As she picked up more of Pearl’s family photos, she thought of Kage drifting and alone while she grew up with her loving grandfather. But the simple truth was that he was uniting with his family, just as she had lost the last member of hers.