I can tell by the way Mama looks at herself
in the window, brushes her bangs to the side,
and runs her finger under her eyes
that we’ll be in Hillsborough soon,
where Papa, in the tweed coat he calls “professorial,”
will meet us.
She pops a wintergreen Life Savers in her mouth
and passes the roll to me.
I take one
because I want my kiss on Papa’s cheek to be fresh.
The bus slows down.
A barbershop, an insurance company,
a dentist’s office, a grocery store
all slide by. The air prickles
and everyone sits up straight and shifts in their seats,
finishes talking to the person next to them.
“Hillsborough coming up!” the driver calls.
The lady across the aisle winds up her yarn
and tucks her knitting into a tote bag. She looks at me again
and leans into the aisle. “Are you adopted?”
“Nani?” Mama asks me. She must have been daydreaming
or she would have asked, “What?”
I whisper, “She wants to know where we’re going.”
Mama glances at the lady and turns into Mifune.
But before she can pretend she doesn’t speak English,
I say, “She’s my mom.”
The lady looks at me, then at Mama,
and shakes her head.
“No . . . she’s not your mother.”
The bus pulls up in front of a diner
and stops so quick
that we all jerk forward in our seats.
The driver cranks a handle and
the door hisses open.
He disappears outside
as cold air scampers down the aisle.
Papa is waiting in front of the diner
wearing his coat
and a red-and-gold scarf, Hillsborough College colors.
When he sees me inside the bus, he waves.
But I wave harder.
Outside, I hold his hand in his pocket
while he counts our suitcases—four plus my overnight case.
The icy air pinches my cheeks,
but my heart is warm.
He drapes his scarf around my throat
and says, “Now you’re the professor.”
The knitting lady steps down from the bus
for a breath of air.
“And this is my dad. See?” I say, and smile.
She looks at Papa, at Mama,
and back at me. Then,
not smiling, she says, “Yes, I see,”
and walks toward the diner.
When I know Mama and Papa can’t see me,
I stick out my tongue
so far that it hurts.