Chapters (97)
- Cover
- Back Cover Text
- Praise
- Booklist
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Seventy-One
- Seventy-Two
- Seventy-Three
- Seventy-Four
- Seventy-Five
- Seventy-Six
- Seventy-Seven
- Seventy-Eight
- Seventy-Nine
- Eighty
- Eighty-One
- Eighty-Two
- Eighty-Three
- Eighty-Four
- Eighty-Five
- Eighty-Six
- Eighty-Seven
- Eighty-Eight
- Eighty-Nine
- Acknowledgments & A Personal Note
- Excerpt
“That’s her behind the sunglasses. She’s Emma Grant now,” Lucy said, pointing to the woman being interviewed. “The next one’s longer.”
Lucy then played the KTKT TV news feature with the reenactment of Emma Grant, a school counselor who’d saved a troubled student’s life.
“I try to make a difference every day,” Emma said in the piece, while the student’s mother, her identity concealed, said: “What our son’s counselor did was nothing short of a miracle.”
After the clip ended, Rita shook her head slowly.
“It’s like she’s a hero or saint,” Rita said.
“And nobody knows the truth about her.” Lucy closed her laptop.
Both women pondered their old friend’s life, measuring it against theirs.
Somewhere between Pecos and Van Horn, Rita fell asleep again, craving a cigarette. As she dozed and the miles passed, Lucy worked, revisiting and refining her plan.
For twenty years she had crawled and struggled, like something discarded to the dung heap while her blood sister thrived at living a lie.
This had to end. A debt was owed.
Lucy was going to collect.
As they neared El Paso, Lucy saw the distant mountain peaks to the north and south of the city, reflecting for a moment about the city’s mass shooting tragedy.
The bus made its way downtown to the station, where they got off to board a new bus for Phoenix. Rita was relieved to smoke and Lucy joined her. While waiting, Lucy glimpsed the unique sneakers of one of the fellow passengers who’d stepped from their bus.
It struck Lucy that those were the exact shoes of a woman she’d seen on the bus from New York to Atlanta. Exact.
Studying the woman, Lucy noted that her hair was different but above her right ankle was the same butterfly tattoo.
What were the odds that the same woman would also be on this bus?
“What’re you looking at?” The woman interrupted Lucy’s staring.
“Didn’t I see you on my bus a few days ago from New York to Atlanta?”
“You’re mistaken. I got on at Abilene. You got a problem?”
“No.” Lucy crushed her cigarette under her foot. “No problem at all.”
Half an hour later Lucy and Rita, along with some new passengers, boarded the new bus to Phoenix.
Not long after they’d left the western fringes of El Paso, a powerful stench invaded the bus before Las Cruces. The stretch along the I-10 was known as Dairy Row. Manure management was in full swing and it took Lucy back to the slaughterhouse of Eternity.
The memories the smell evoked lingered, stirring Lucy to work on her laptop and her plan.
She paused to look at Rita, asleep next to her.