The bus slows and come to a stop at a station next to a convenience store.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR2yWHcb6gR
The driver stands and announces in a loud voice, “Philadelphia. We have forty minutes.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfeAUl5qTFI
The two women watch the others stand and stretch as they gather their purses and wallets before disembarking. As the others near the front Mechteld says, “Everyone will get off to have lunch.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMeMd0FmQKI
“Will we?” Marquita asks.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQibVTy6IsX
“We won’t be eating.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSVgLVS6Tj
Mechteld reaches into the pocket of her hoodie and takes out a pack of cigarettes and lighter.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0lWObA8uZm
“Come on, I need a cigarette.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fjexkE779
Marquita’s legs shake as she stands. The hours of sitting made her already weak legs stiffer. She wavers as she walks down the narrow aisle. When she gets to the top of the steps she firmly grips the rail as she feels Mechteld bracing her small frame by the shoulders. Together the carefully walk down the stairs. The driver waits for them at the bottom. Marquita locks eyes with him as he says, “Feeling better I see.” 608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡILKr08PUsn
His aura changes to a shade Marquita has always associated with suspicion. With the other passengers away his thoughts come out clear.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxaqE1mVeT
“These two are weird. How do they even know each other?”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhivj8yRENw
Marquita pauses to look at the driver and read more from him, but is interrupted by Mechteld pushing her forward towards the curb.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuTzeCdjIym
Once out of earshot, Mechteld says, “He’ll switch out at Pittsburgh. He’s thinking about saying something to the next driver about us.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGYWsCrvB9e
“Will he?” She asks. The thought is optimistic to her.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ehsFdn2lQ
“Maybe, he doesn’t know what to say besides ‘They’re weird’.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ59J9z7FqHp
Together they sit on a curb, their legs stretched out over hot asphalt. From under her baseball cap, a bead of sweat runs down Mechteld’s forehead before becoming lost in the scars crisscrossing her face. Marquita scratches her head as the stiches start to burn as the sweat collects under the hijab.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKhZuf5WnDo
Mechteld pulls out her pack of cigarettes and quickly lights up as Marquita desperately fans air under her skirt. She looks at Mechteld’s long sleeves and says, “We stand out with all these clothes on.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlnhluil9zL
“We’ll stand out worse without them.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD99hIckvTW
Marquita thinks, “Should I try to stand out? Is being noticed the key to getting home?”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBbv0J2zEiY
Marquita looks across the street to the convenience store where the other passengers were buying their lunches. It feels odd to Marquita that she isn’t hungry. She knows she hasn’t eaten in days, yet the absence of hunger pangs is discomforting.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh0VePy6QM0
Turning to Mechteld she asks, “Do you really never eat?”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7o8y5AfEhi
“Only on rare occasions. Some immortals keep up the ritual, but it seems redundant to me.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5oB1rziHR7
Marquita thinks about an existence without food. For her, it seems to alien and unnatural to live without it. In Corona, life revolved around faith, family and food. She suspects she won’t have any of those things while with Mechteld.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj5bMWtRP3l
Marquita thoughts go to the last dinner she had with her parents. After their prayers, their meal suffered from several strained silences. It was the first dinner they had together in months, but despite his chronic absences, her father had made an attempt to be there and make her happy by making her favorite food. The memory stings Marquita’s consciousness as she thinks about it. Even with the silence and confusing feelings, the memory is precious to her.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMA1r5M1JC
Thinking about her last meal Marquita says, “I could never give up my favorite food-”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiJwaRO6ifn
“Tostones.” They say at the same time.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU4o8UmmI9o
Mechteld nods, “Yeah, I know.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ94sqTjWEtR
“Surely you have a favorite food?” Marquita asks.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdQKUKPEbyL
Mechteld takes a long drag from her cigarette and lets it out slowly, “You’re looking at it.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ84XWLfRXxi
Mechteld rubs the butt of her now spent cigarette on the ground before taking another from the pack. Quickly she lights it and sets her pack and lighter back down.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdY6B1heu75
Marquita asks, “Did you read from my mind that I loved tostones?“
Mechteld shakes her head as she breathes deep before letting out a cloud of smoke, “No, I learned that from your father.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcUYb9f00JJ
Marquita again wonders about her parents. Had her father gone back to work after only a few days of losing his daughter? Did they tell their family in the DR what happened? Had they planned a funeral? Or were they looking for her?608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyNC26M9ZXQ
Marquita thinks back to the picture of her father in the paper. She knows he was hurting. His tired eyes etched in the newsprint showed a level of emotion she hasn’t seen in years. It was a reminder that despite everything, she meant something to him.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKgKvPaNRVb
“He always made tostones when he came back from a long trip. He would pretend he was making them for himself, but he’d always make me the most.” She says out loud.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB0XOt3eg3e
She thinks again to the awkward silences at dinner and at the hospital and about his casual wave as he walked away from her hospital room. 608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7K0QpEJt55
“He could never say it.” She says as she keeps remembering his hand waving back at her. “He always had to be so hard.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKIK8cBaRKf
“It wasn’t his fault.” Mechteld offers. “He expressed himself in the way he knew how.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqVuR5n6MGO
“I’d trade all the tostones in the world for one real moment with him.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUfjEdsobu
Marquita hangs her head and thinks to herself, “Not even in the end could he do that.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbvZkBvPu5n
“At least you knew.” Mechteld keeps her eyes on pavement. “He’ll regret actions for the rest of his life.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0oktjYXfa
Marquita turns to Mechteld with her eyebrows slightly lifted.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa9eavYWImw
“Or at least until I see him again.” She adds.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJv6PZv9WX3
“If.” Mechteld corrects. “We’re only in Pennsylvania. You still have a long way to go.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgDlCe5MluA
The thought enters Marquita’s mind, “Why wait and follow her rules? I can end this now.” But it’s quickly extinguished with memories of heads scars, fire, and her father’s unconcerned wave.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlp6bjck0mC
“Before he became scared of me he wasn’t afraid to hold my hand. Whenever we’d walk around our neighborhood he’d hold my hand and say, “Stay close, New York is the most dangerous place in the world”, but when we would visit Santo Domingo he’d hold my hand tighter and tell me, “Stay close, Santo Domingo is the most dangerous place in the world”.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrmwzCZYR0f
Marquita grins slightly as she remembers, but her hazel eyes hold sadness.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlNO0Kt821y
“I used love Sundays because my dad didn’t work. After church, just the two of us would walk to the bodega hand in hand and he’d buy two chocolate milks: one for me, one for him.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhorwMSUdW0
“When I started to know things I shouldn’t, he treated me different. His grip on my hand became looser until one day he let go. After that he started to push me away and eventually he got his job so he could run away from me.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuDR9OFb9fC
“It wasn’t you he was running from. It was himself.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3n3vrhK1Ti
“Yeah, but when you’re ten it doesn’t make a difference.”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXFeDeM1OYH
From the bus the hear the driver shout, “Five minutes!”608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJiqv2KgM6Q
Marquita looks down at the small pile of cigarettes next to Mechteld. She realizes she has been unaware of how long she has been talking. For her, she finally had a chance to tell someone the feelings she kept to herself and despite the circumstances she feels there is so much more she wants to say.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2CLR0bgn8Y
Mechteld stands and shakes stray ash from her clothes.608Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEx5z33LhIG
“Come on, let’s go. Use your eyes and ears this time.”
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