Chapter 39
Ava
Nobody showed up outside my apartment to give me a ride.
The streetlights lit my way as I hurried down the sidewalk. A car approached, but a man was driving.
Men can’t be trusted.
I hid behind a tree until it passed.
I came to a street and a green sign on the corner read “Fifth Street.”
Fifth!
If I kept walking, I could get to First.
I moved quickly. The next sign read Sixth, so I turned around and headed back the other way. Fifth again. Then Fourth. Then Third.
When I arrived at First Street, I paused. I had no idea whether to turn right or left, or how far down this street Big Harry’s would be.
But this was the road we’d driven on from the hospital.
We’d come from the left before turning in. I closed my eyes, trying to picture the route. But I hadn’t looked closely enough. I couldn’t remember if we’d passed Big Harry’s Diner.
This street was wide, with businesses on both sides. A man sat on a covered bench.
I hurried past him. Cars moved in steady lines, their headlights piercing the dark. Two women stood beneath a lamp, talking and laughing.
I scanned the buildings. Auto Service. Pizzeria. Fresh Nails.
No Big Harry’s.
I clenched my hands into fists and approached the two women. They wore tall shoes and bright makeup. They paused and looked at me.
“Do you know where Big Harry’s Diner is?” I asked.
“That way,” one pointed. “About two blocks. Kinda rough part of town, though, for a fresh face like you. Sure you want to be walking alone this time of night?”
My belly quaked. “Thank you,” I said. The women shrugged and resumed their conversation.
I stayed close to the buildings and almost jumped when I crossed the street and a car honked at me.
But I saw it. A sign that read Big Harry’s Diner lit up red on a brick building.
I raced for it and tugged on the door.
The sounds and smells immediately soothed me. I knew this place. Maybe not the sight of it. But something about it felt completely right.
A few people sat at tables in a big room on the right. More lined up on stools along a counter on the back wall. A woman carrying a tray paused beside me. “Ava? That you? Oh my gawd! Harry’s gonna be so excited to see you!”
Would he?
She turned toward the bar. “Devon! Look! It’s little Ava! Go get Harry!”
A dark-skinned man behind the counter waved his arm and headed to the back corner of the room.
“How are you? How’s the pictures? Harry is so proud! He framed that shot of him you took.” The woman led me to the big counter and set her tray in front of an empty stool. “Take a load off. Can I get you something? You like Sprite, right?”
This woman knew what I liked to drink. And that Harry had a photo I had taken.
“Yes, thank you.”
A giant man with a huge, bushy beard came out of a far door, followed by Devon.
“Ava! My love! You’re here!”
He enveloped me in a hearty hug, and I tried not to go stiff. But as he held me, I realized I knew this position, this man, and my head dropped to his shoulder. Tears popped out of my eyes.
When he pulled back, his expression immediately changed. “Li’l Ava, what’s wrong?”
I shook my head. I didn’t know what to tell him, how to explain.
“I need to get here,” I said to him, pulling the address card out of my pocket. “I don’t have a way.”
He and the woman glanced at each other.
“What happened to Tucker?” he asked.
“I had to leave. I had to get away.”
His words came out like a growl. “If that boy hurt a hair on your head…”
I held out the card. “Can you help me get here, please?”
The woman turned the card around. “I can run her out there if you like. Or we could call for a car. That’s a ways. An hour at least to get there.”
Harry’s eyes narrowed. “I will take her myself. Come on. You can tell Big Harry all about it on the way.”
The woman passed me a cold green can and leaned in to kiss my cheek. “You take care, Ava. It’ll be all right. Men are pigs.”
I nodded. So it was true. Men couldn’t be trusted.
But Big Harry was a man. He must be different.
We stopped by his office for his keys, and he led me out a back door into an alley. I followed him to a black truck and climbed in.
When we had been on the road a while, he finally asked, “You want to talk about it?”
I shook my head. Big Harry was helping me get to my last known address. I felt sure that when I got there, things would make sense. Maybe my journal would be there. I could check the dresser.
I wished I had brought the notebook.
“So, what’s in Wimberley?” he asked. “Where am I taking you?”
“My last known address,” I said.
“Where you lived with your mother?” His heavy eyebrows drew together.
I lived with her last? A mother sounded like a very good thing.
“Yes.”
“I thought you hated the sight of that woman.”
Did I? “When was that?”
“When you first worked for me. I’m glad you made up with her. Family is family.”
I had family. I could ask my mother questions. Figure out what was happening and why I was with a man when men couldn’t be trusted.
I must have fallen asleep to the rumble of the engine because I jolted awake when we turned onto a dirt path in the dark.
“Google says this is it,” Big Harry said.
A tiny yellow light by the door pierced the dark.
He pulled up close to the porch. “I’ll come with ya, just in case.”
I opened the door and jumped down. The front window brightened.
The curtain shifted, then a few seconds later, the front door flew open.
“Ava? Is that you?” A woman hurried out, holding tight to the front of a robe.
“Mother?” I ventured.
“Oh my God, Ava. I can’t believe you’re home!” She rushed down in bare feet and wrapped her arms around me. “What’s happened?”
Big Harry walked around the front of his truck. “She showed up at my diner, asking me to drive her here.”
She held my cheeks with both hands, staring into my eyes. “Ava, what do you remember?”
I held her gaze. Something felt wrong. Now that I was here, my stomach flipped.
Big Harry stepped close. “Are you all right, Ava? Is this what you want? To be returned to your mother?”
Did I? It was my last known address. She wasn’t a man. Men couldn’t be trusted.
I nodded slowly.
“All right then. I’ve got to get back. The overnight shift is light.” Big Harry patted my shoulder. “You come by anytime.”
I followed my mother up the steps to the house, feeling less sure by the second. But she led me to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair. “Let me make you your favorite tea. You can get some sleep, and we’ll get it all sorted out. Does anyone know you’re here other than that man?”
I shook my head.
“No one else?”
I shook it again.
“When did you lose your memory?”
“Today.”
“Thank God you made your way home. Thank God.” She turned on the kettle and the little noises calmed me. The clink of the metal tea canister on the counter. The scrape of the mugs as she pulled them from the shelf.
I knew this place, deep down. When the water hit the tea, the smell made me want to breathe deeply. And when Mother gave me the cup, the first taste was beautiful, warm and cinnamon and sweet, like everything good.
I had done the right thing.
I was home.