When the waitress left to go get my order, I went to use the telephone. Patsy had gone out for the evening, so I called up two of my other coworkers. They had company and neither one knew how to get to Hartville. I couldn’t call up Daddy because I’d have to explain to him what I was doing in Hartville without a ride. I knew it was going to be hard enough on him and Mama when I told them about Odell, and I wanted to spare them as much misery as possible for as long as I could. If I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I couldn’t imagine how all this was going to affect them.

A few minutes after I returned to my table, the waitress came back with my order. “Okay. Now do you need anything else? We have pecan pie for dessert.”

“No, this is enough. But I need to ask you something else. In case I don’t find my friends and have to get home another way, is there a bus that goes to Branson?”

“Yeah. You can catch it a few blocks from here on the same side of the street. Go left when you leave here. The last one going out of town today will be leaving in about six or seven minutes, if it’s on time. If you don’t catch it, the next one won’t come until eight o’clock tomorrow morning, if it’s on time.”

I immediately paid the waitress and had her wrap my order to go. It was a good thing I left when I did; and ran all the way. The bus was just about to leave when I got there.

I was so overwhelmed and exhausted I almost accidentally sat down in a vacant seat. It was in the front of the bus, where colored folks were not allowed to sit. I caught myself before the driver and the white folks in the front had time to make a fuss and flag down a policeman. I claimed the last empty seat in the back and set the bag with my food on the floor because I had no appetite. Within minutes after the bus pulled away from the curb, I closed my eyes and dozed off. A dream of myself running toward Mobile Bay to jump in, jolted me awake. I had slept almost all the way home. When I got off at the corner of my block, I felt like a zombie and probably looked like one as I walked toward my house.

Willie Frank’s truck was parked in front of Yvonne and Milton’s house, so I knew they had made it back home. I had no idea what I would say when I saw them again. And only God knew what they’d say to me.