I located my little ragtag family out in the parking lot. I walked past a pregnant lady with two little kids snuggled underneath each of her arms, an old man and woman sitting side by side talking, before I took a window seat near the middle of the bus. I climbed the stairs of the bus into the stifling scent of disinfectant and human sweat. He took my suitcase and tucked it underneath in the luggage compartment. The driver trotted down the stairs of the bus and smiled at us. Now, get on that bus and don’t come back until the good Lord sends you back. This town ain’t equipped to hold somebody as smart and strong as you. You ain’t but fourteen, but you too big for this place. She wiped my face and handed the tissue to me.

She finally let me go and pulled a couple tissues from her skirt pocket. Vera wasn’t much on crying, but anyone standing in that parking lot would have thought the opposite. Vera leaned her large frame in and hugged me and the waterfall between us started. I know that school got telephones so don’t pretend like they don’t. “Now you got enough money in your bag for a taxicab once you get in Virginia. The Greyhound bus pulled to a stop in front of us with a long loud hiss. I knew he was crying and didn’t want me to see. A few seconds later, he wriggled from my grip and ran off to Birdie’s car. I reached down and hugged him so tight if he had been any smaller, I might have snapped him in two. There’s nobody around to hurt you anymore.” I plucked a piece of lint from Sam’s little Afro. Why can’t you go to school here?” Sam asked. “I just don’t understand why you got to leave. You can get into really big trouble, especially if Miss Vee finds out.” He frowned and looked away. “And you can’t be stealing from the grocery store, okay? That was cute when you were little but you’re too big for that stuff. I’m not going through that again.” Sam rolled his eyes. “I ain’t touched no cigarettes since Miss Vee caught me. “No more smoking cigarettes while I’m gone, okay?” I said. I grabbed his hand and pulled him off, out of Vera’s earshot. I sat my suitcase down and placed my lunch bag on top of it. Even though he did what he called “cool stuff” like smoking cigarettes and stealing candy from the grocery store, at that moment, he looked exactly like what he was, a small and frightened ten-year-old boy. Sam hung at Vera’s side kicking the rubber toe of his canvas sneaker against the asphalt. Like everything she said was right or true. Vera, a thick light-skinned woman with deep dimples that framed a large gap-toothed smile, always spoke with such authority.

All her little secrets a novel