The bus slows and come to a stop at a station next to a convenience store.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMRmCNdMmwP
The driver stands and announces in a loud voice, “Philadelphia. We have forty minutes.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLF5Y46ty2M
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.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJuwvOe2e45
“Will we?” Marquita asks.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNai6gr2KTQ
“We won’t be eating.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9b55EdQjWV
Mechteld reaches into the pocket of her hoodie and takes out a pack of cigarettes and lighter.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiM30aCAx2Y
“Come on, I need a cigarette.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8flW67T8Nm
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.” 590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYq5D9f7SLl
His aura changes to a shade Marquita has always associated with suspicion. With the other passengers away his thoughts come out clear.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUuDO9Mrv2m
“These two are weird. How do they even know each other?”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8GmynH00js
Marquita pauses to look at the driver and read more from him, but is interrupted by Mechteld pushing her forward towards the curb.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5dIeXEUFB6
Once out of earshot, Mechteld says, “He’ll switch out at Pittsburgh. He’s thinking about saying something to the next driver about us.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp8GIqmTNtb
“Will he?” She asks. The thought is optimistic to her.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmREz1cAYO9
“Maybe, he doesn’t know what to say besides ‘They’re weird’.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi2qJlBAtyW
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.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ4aKCELLy6
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.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFuaeIIGw1g
“We’ll stand out worse without them.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyxDthgj9Be
Marquita thinks, “Should I try to stand out? Is being noticed the key to getting home?”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ8pC5G8APA
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.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTH52jKUPRj
Turning to Mechteld she asks, “Do you really never eat?”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg9wKxkXpgm
“Only on rare occasions. Some immortals keep up the ritual, but it seems redundant to me.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTHVeYwan90
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.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCXaFl8Pnta
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.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTiC096oKH0
Thinking about her last meal Marquita says, “I could never give up my favorite food-”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdcbm53mPDu
“Tostones.” They say at the same time.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfKF8iq5zig
Mechteld nods, “Yeah, I know.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Nm1KepTXE
“Surely you have a favorite food?” Marquita asks.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWXMIg1iEf
Mechteld takes a long drag from her cigarette and lets it out slowly, “You’re looking at it.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ8154sLTKf
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.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5iUGjTLuNp
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.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC02KICvvVW
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?590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMejps0jYEJ
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.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLOoEom4dvF
“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.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2v797Oyj2E
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. 590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvynuZXxkQo
“He could never say it.” She says as she keeps remembering his hand waving back at her. “He always had to be so hard.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgOhGefaIB8
“It wasn’t his fault.” Mechteld offers. “He expressed himself in the way he knew how.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUWt9do5UH2
“I’d trade all the tostones in the world for one real moment with him.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuW0MJRrf9F
Marquita hangs her head and thinks to herself, “Not even in the end could he do that.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBeKjISwpOM
“At least you knew.” Mechteld keeps her eyes on pavement. “He’ll regret actions for the rest of his life.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE33WP9OtH9
Marquita turns to Mechteld with her eyebrows slightly lifted.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ70hvY0UY8g
“Or at least until I see him again.” She adds.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQ6GxriOa3
“If.” Mechteld corrects. “We’re only in Pennsylvania. You still have a long way to go.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoZiTqkyPhw
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.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ02t7icvddf
“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”.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Rc0O4ofSK
Marquita grins slightly as she remembers, but her hazel eyes hold sadness.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKGqAAyoA3r
“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.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCadsG16puJ
“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.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNMG8gtgY5w
“It wasn’t you he was running from. It was himself.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFZ8bbs063Y
“Yeah, but when you’re ten it doesn’t make a difference.”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm935ooChZd
From the bus the hear the driver shout, “Five minutes!”590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ62JawJhBkL
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.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlj7OMBn956
Mechteld stands and shakes stray ash from her clothes.590Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhr2OadvL4
“Come on, let’s go. Use your eyes and ears this time.”
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