Chapter 40
Ali
“Hey, Carl,” I said, noticing his familiar grumpy self standing by the bus waiting to help passengers put their cargo in the luggage compartment.
“Lucky us, we get to take a trip back to Chicago together.”
He muttered something.
“What was that?” I asked. I was practically daring him.
“At least this time you’ve got fewer bags.”
A laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it. The pile in the shade was noticeably smaller.
“Yeah. I guess so.” He didn’t need to know about the invisible haul of emotional baggage in tow.
“How’s Betsy?” I asked.
“Happy to be back to work. Truth is, we were drivin’ each other crazy.”
“That tracks. She’s a feisty one.”
“You did all right by her,” he said gruffly. “After her fall.”
I blinked. “Was that a compliment?”
“I don’t hate ya, kid,” he said, his words no longer sharp, worn down.
“You could’ve fooled me.”
“I wasn’t mad at you for what you did.” He tugged at his cap. “It was what you didn’t do.”
My stomach tightened.
“You didn’t visit Libby. Didn’t come to the funeral.”
There it was.
“Oh, Carl.” My voice softened. “You loved her.”
“I did.” A beat passed. “Was in love with her. Since we were kids.”
Of course he had. I felt warmth knowing that Gibby had someone quietly orbiting her all those years.
“I used to come by even when you visited,” he went on. “I fixed things. Sat with her. Kept it up after she got sick. Even when she didn’t know who I was.”
A memory flickered.
“Oh my God! Dumpy. She called you Dumpy also.”
“Yeah, that was me.”
“She made me promise not to come once she stopped remembering,” I said quietly. “No sad, sappy service either. She didn’t want me to watch her disappear.”
We dropped into silence again.
“I saw one of her episodes. The worst one. The one that finally forced my dad to put her in the facility.” My throat was tight, but I continued. “Her body was there. But she was gone. She was so angry. So scared. It terrified me.”
For the first time, I didn’t dress it up.
“Maybe I gave up on her too easily. I’m not even sure it was what she wanted. Or if my dad forced it all.
“I honored her wishes,” I said. “But also . . . I was scared. I didn’t know how to cope with something like that. So I stayed away.”
“All this time,” Carl muttered. “I thought you were just a spoiled brat who abandoned your grandmother.”
“Maybe I was,” I said. “Maybe I fled because it was too hard to face.”
Carl studied me. His glare was different now. Less accusation. More recognition.
“She was stubborn. Wild too,” he said.
A small smile found me.
“I’ve heard that.”
“You feel her here, don’t you?” he asked.
“In Lakeside?” I nodded. “Yeah. That’s the problem.”
“So why’re you leaving?” he asked.
“Because if I stay in a place for too long . . .” I shrugged, unsure how to finish that sentence. “Well, I guess it’s because I have a bad habit. I shine too bright, or talk too loud, or feel too big. Eventually, people squint. They pull back. I don’t wait around for that part anymore.”
I blinked as my eyes started to burn.
“I leave before they can.”
“Some people around here have grown fond of you. My good friend Jake, for instance. My infuriating sister, for another. Seems you’ve made a place for yourself here. Why not stay this time?”
“I don’t know how to stay.”
Especially when I successfully pushed away for good the one I want to stay for.
“Even dandelion seeds land somewhere,” Carl said. “Crack in a sidewalk or a meadow. But they land.”
I looked at the bus. At my small pile of luggage.
Maybe this time it wasn’t about baggage after all.
“I am sorry,” he said finally. “For bullyin.’”
The apology wasn’t loud. But the simplicity made it more honest. And I was reminded of why I’d returned to Lakeside. It wasn’t only because I loved Jake. I loved the town. Others here made me feel seen too.
I walked over to my bags and started to collect my things. Carl was calling passengers to load.
A whimpering sound stopped me.
Once still, I didn’t hear it again.
Then I did hear it. Louder this time.
I looked around me and listened. There it was again. I followed the noise to the side of the bright blue cinderblock depot building.
I inched closer and closer to the sound. I moved a few fallen pieces of cardboard and weathered wood. There at the bottom of the heap was a crushed cardboard box and five newborn golden puppies.
“Oh my God!” I tossed the debris away from the pups with more speed. “Where’s your mama? Are you on your own?” They squirmed and whimpered.
I crouched down to stroke the babies. They were so downy soft. So delicate. And very, very hungry.
They’d been abandoned. Left behind. Cast away. And dropped in this little town of Nowheresville, Wisconsin. Their story felt very familiar.
“Well, if you were going to be dropped anywhere, I’d say here was the right place. They take care of each other here. No matter how you blew into town.” I pulled one of the pups from the box and held it up to my face. “You’re going to be okay. I promise,” I said directly into the barely open eyes.
It was then that I heard the bus pull away without me. And I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.
Jake
“I feel like a sardine in a can. Can someone please open a window?” Misha complained from beside me in the truck.
“You didn’t have to come, you know,” I said back to him. Frustration was getting the better of all of us.
“We’ll see about that,” Misha said.
“Or you could ride in the truck bed,” I suggested.
“Like one of your four-legged patients? Are you trying to offend me?” he asked dramatically.
“Look, there it is,” Eric shouted, spotting the bus pulling out just past the edge of town.
I stepped on the gas to close the distance to the bus.
“Can this thing go any faster?” Charlotte asked.
I looked at her in surprise.
“What? I’m a sucker for a good ending.” She shrugged.
“Okay. Okay. You’re gaining on it. Start honking,” Misha shrieked.
“Flash your lights,” Eric suggested.
“Faster! Jake, this is no time to hold back,” Charlotte advised.
The gas pedal was to the floor. There was no oncoming traffic. I swerved my truck into the lane and prayed it stayed clear. I honked a rapid beat. Misha, Eric, and Charlotte screamed out the window from the cab.
Carl waved for us to go around him.
We all screamed, “Pull over!”
Carl finally pulled the bus onto the dusty shoulder.
I parked the truck abruptly and ran to the bus door.
I stormed up the steps and wide eyes stared back at me. None of which were the ones I needed to see. None were Ali.
“She’s not here?”
“I’m trying to tell you, boy. She didn’t get on the bus. She’s still in Lakeside,” Carl said, and if I didn’t know any better I’d say he was grinning.
Ali
I needed help. I didn’t know what to do with the puppies. Should I leave them where they are? There was no mama dog anywhere to be seen. Was she out looking for food? Who would abandon helpless sweeties like these?
“Are you hungry?” I was using my pet-slash-baby voice.
I pulled out my phone, planning to call Misha.
The pup started to wiggle in my other hand, and I loosened my grip on my phone.
“No!” My phone slipped out of my hand and directly between the storm drain grate. “Oh my God, this can’t be happening,” I groaned up at the sky.
The puppies wailed with me.
I straightened and found my courage. I was Alison Fucking Bennet and I could handle this.
“Okay, little ones. I’m going to get you to safety.”
I looked around for something to carry the pups in. The cardboard box they lay in was gnarled and likely wouldn’t hold up.
My designer leather luggage was sturdy and strong, though.
“Right . . . okay. We’re doing this.”
I removed all my belongings from my roller suitcase and placed the box with the pups inside. I closed the flap but didn’t zip it.
Hmm . . . I couldn’t tip the bag all the way upright or else the babies would tumble about.
So I dragged the bag on its wheels, almost lying flat, the main part of the suitcase barely hovering above the surface of the ground.
It was just enough I could utilize the wheels.
I was hunched over like a gremlin, slowly pulling the bag along on its wheels.
At least I was in more sensible shoes this time.
“Funny story, little ones. This is not my first time struggling with my bags across this parking lot.” One of the puppies yawned a cute squeak. She looked like a little lion cub. “But you are much more precious cargo.”
Jake
We made it back to the bus depot, but Ali was nowhere to be found.
“Do you think she called someone else for a ride? I don’t have any missed calls or texts,” Misha said.
“Call her again,” I shouted back to Misha, who was still by the truck.
That’s when I heard music start to play from around the corner of the building. I walked closer and realized it was a ringtone. Ali’s ringtone for Misha. “Pink Pony Club.” But where was Ali?
I noticed a couple of bags stacked against the wall and a mound of clothes and shoes inexplicably piled in the open. Still no Ali.
I called out her name a few times and received no response. The phone kept ringing, however. From . . . below me?
That’s when I realized the phone was sitting at the bottom of the shallow well.
“She must have dropped her phone in the grate,” I hollered back toward the truck.
And without a phone, she would need to get someplace to call for a ride. And if I knew Ali, I knew exactly where she went.