The bus pulled out of the terminus rank, and, for the first time in his life, Spokes had no idea where he was headed. He should have been terrified, but, upon deeper contemplation, he found that he did not mind not knowing, because this seemed to him to be a beginning.

He hazarded a quick glance at the owner of the beautiful brown hands. She was so much loveliness that he quickly had to look away … until he felt bold enough to look again. In order not to be too overwhelmed by her comeliness, he could only look at her in parts. The neat overlap of her ankles as she sat with her silk-stockinged legs slightly stretched out in front of her. The gentle arch of her calves. The softness of the soft places, which he made sure not to look at for a moment longer than was necessary. The long, regal neck, like a column at a temple he had seen. The face – the pretty, pretty face – slightly upturned as though always waiting for a kiss. She smiled at a passage she was reading, and a dimple appeared. It was the appearance of that dimple that allowed Spokes to discover what he was about – that he meant to make this woman, who was loveliness itself, his wife.

He should never have acknowledged this to himself because all of a sudden, uncertainty plagued him. Where was he going? What would he do once he got there? The sun was making its way towards setting; where would he spend the night? He would have to put himself in a precarious situation and rely on the kindness of strangers – and strangers were not always kind. He became hopeful that she was heading to a mission station. He could pretend (not lie, mind you, he did not like to lie) that he had travelled all this way because he had heard that there was a post recently made available for a teacher. An English teacher. And then what? He looked at the beautiful brown hands holding the leather-bound book and knew that there was no easy way out.

By the time she alighted at her bus stop, there were a few stars in a sky that was languidly giving itself over to darkness. Spokes followed her off the bus, as did other passengers. Once outside in alien land, Spokes was evidently the only foreigner, as most passengers had people waiting ready to greet them and receive whatever luggage or parcels they had brought with them. Those who were not performing this particular act were congregated around the caravan of a travelling salesman, who kept taunting them about closing down for the night. His customers seemed to enjoy this, and taunted him back about how difficult it was for them to remove money from their pockets at this time of day. There was much merriment as they tried to hold off the night a little longer.

Upon seeing her, the travelling salesman left his caravan and rushed to help her with her trunk. This was something that Spokes would have thought to do had he not been overawed by the newness of it all.