“What do you mean, a trip? Aren’t we going back to the house first?” I asked
, a small sense of panic balling into a lump in my throat.
“No. Your aunt would rather she didn’t see you right now. You need the bathroom?”
I slid out of the booth and headed for the ladies’ room without answering him. After I went, I stood by the sink and looked at myself in the mirror. I was tired, very tired. I could see it in my eyes, eyes that had seen too much sadness and too much disappointment. They wanted to just close and remain closed forever and ever. For a moment I understood why Mama had tried to cut her wrists. Sometimes, it all gets to be too much, even for someone as young as I was.
I ran the cold water and splashed it on my face. Then I ran a brush through my hair. I stood there staring at myself and didn’t realize how long I was there until I heard a voice behind me and turned to see a tall woman with very short hair. She wore a blue jacket and a pair of dark blue slacks.
“Your uncle sent me in here to see what was keeping you,” she said.
Now he was asking strangers to help. I grimaced and picked up my purse.
“Nothing’s keeping me. That’s the point,” I told her, and walked past her and out the door.
I returned to the booth, but Uncle Buster wasn’t there. And neither was my suitcase!
I looked around the diner. The woman from the bathroom came up beside me.
“Just keep going out the door,” she said.
“Who are you?” I asked, pulling myself back.
“Your escort,” she replied.
“My escort?” I didn’t know whether to laugh at her or tell her to get lost. “Where’s my uncle?” I cried, and headed for the diner entrance.
She followed right behind me, spooking me with how closely she kept to me. I stepped out and looked over the parking lot. I didn’t see him or his car anywhere.
“We’re here to escort you to your new school,” the woman said, stepping up beside me.
“You’re taking me to a school?” I pulled my head back. “Where’s my uncle? What happened to my suitcase?”
“He took it and he’s gone,” she said. “You just come with us now.”
“Why would he take my suitcase? My uncle didn’t say anything about any escort.”
“Trust me,” she said. “That’s who we are.”
The lack of any emotion and the firmness with which she stood facing me actually frightened me. That surprised me because I had seen things and been confronted by people who looked a great deal more threatening than she did, but there was something so cold about her calmness.
“I’m going back in there and call my aunt,” I said.
“That would be a waste of time. Just get into the vehicle and we’ll get started,” she said, blocking my path back to the front entrance of the diner.
“What vehicle?” I looked in the direction she nodded. “I only see an ambulance there.”
“That ambulance is for you,” the woman said.
“What?”
She nodded again at the white ambulance I had seen pull up. A man sat behind the wheel staring at us.
“This is really stupid. Where’s my uncle?” I asked again. I could feel my chest tightening.
“I told you. He’s gone,” the woman said. “You don’t see his car anymore, do you?”
She was right about that, which only increased my anxiety. A state policeman had brought me here to meet him, and now Uncle Buster had just disappeared without saying good-bye? And he had taken my suitcase! This didn’t make any sense at all.