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“Good, let’s get you something to eat first.”

She took me to a cafeteria and told the cashier to charge everything to her. She told me how to get to her office and left me. I had a small salad, some macaroni and cheese, and a piece of chocolate cake, much more than I thought I would eat.

Afterward, I walked to her office. She said she had to attend to a patient, but she would be right back and told me to make myself comfortable. There was a very soft leather sofa, and I sat on it and glanced at some magazines. My eyelids grew heavier and heavier. I wasn’t aware of how tired I was from the strain of traveling here and the emotional tension I had just experienced with Mama.

I’ll close my eyes for a little while, I thought, and leaned back and to the side on the sofa. I guess I fell asleep quickly. I woke up when I sensed someone looking down at me. My eyelids fluttered like the wings of a newly hatched baby bird, and I focused on a pair of gray pants. My eyes traveled up until I confronted a state policeman.

Doctor Young stood right beside him. I sat up quickly.

“You weren’t supposed to leave your aunt and uncle’s home,” the state policeman said gruffly.

I looked at Doctor Young.

“They say you ran away, Phoebe. Is that true?” she asked softly.

“I wanted to see my mother.”

“But you didn’t tell your uncle and aunt you were coining here,” she said. “Everyone was worried about you.”

“Sure they were. Just sick with worry,” I said. Then I narrowed my eyes. “I thought you couldn’t reach her. I thought she wasn’t interested.”

“Your uncle spoke to me when I told him you were here. They have the police looking for you. You don’t want to be on the road alone, Phoebe. You’ll only get yourself into more trouble.”

“Thanks a lot,” I said.

“We have to do what’s best for you, Phoebe. You won’t help your mother’s situation by getting yourself into trouble. I’ll keep your uncle and aunt informed about your mother’s condition,” she promised.

“Don’t waste your time,” I said.

“Let’s go,” the state policeman told me, and shook his head at Doctor Young, who stepped back.

“I wish you the best,” she called after us.

“Best of what?” I muttered.

I already had the best of nothing.

What else was there for someone like me?

7

Waiting for the Music

I was surprised when the state policeman did not bring me straight back to Uncle Buster and Aunt Mae Louise’s home. I wasn’t even sure we were going in the right direction. Most of the roadside looked unfamiliar to me. The late afternoon sun played peekaboo through trees and around houses, putting me in a daze. I dozed on and off. After about two hours on a main highway, the policeman pulled off and into the parking lot of a roadside diner. It was one of those silvery-sided ones shaped like a railroad car that looked like it had been built fifty years ago. It wasn’t very busy. There were only four cars in the dimly lit parking lot.

“I’m not hungry,” I said immediately.

“I’m not bringing you here to eat,” he replied. “Get out.”

Confused, I got out of the vehicle.

“Take your suitcase, too,” he ordered.

“My suitcase?”

“Your uncle is waiting for you in there,” he said, nodding at the diner.

I looked at the other cars and realized one of them was my uncle Buster’s. I could see he was sitting in a booth by a window and looking out at us. I gazed back at the state policeman, who was standing by his car door, and I shrugged. Then I reached in, took my suitcase, and shut the door.