The bus slows and come to a stop at a station next to a convenience store.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvivVxhD7mj
The driver stands and announces in a loud voice, “Philadelphia. We have forty minutes.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2XKElRuOEe
The two women watch the others stand and stretch as they gather their purses and wallets before disembarking. As the others near the front Mechteld says, “Everyone will get off to have lunch.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDWGnMsf26M
“Will we?” Marquita asks.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNVBJ8OoRn9
“We won’t be eating.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUX5Nza5cJ4
Mechteld reaches into the pocket of her hoodie and takes out a pack of cigarettes and lighter.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVbP6mPg9T9
“Come on, I need a cigarette.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1NHDhjauOJ
Marquita’s legs shake as she stands. The hours of sitting made her already weak legs stiffer. She wavers as she walks down the narrow aisle. When she gets to the top of the steps she firmly grips the rail as she feels Mechteld bracing her small frame by the shoulders. Together the carefully walk down the stairs. The driver waits for them at the bottom. Marquita locks eyes with him as he says, “Feeling better I see.” 717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfUK7jMDNJY
His aura changes to a shade Marquita has always associated with suspicion. With the other passengers away his thoughts come out clear.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTuS5R3nGLW
“These two are weird. How do they even know each other?”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAwwOjt0Ct0
Marquita pauses to look at the driver and read more from him, but is interrupted by Mechteld pushing her forward towards the curb.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbZ2ingcIQ1
Once out of earshot, Mechteld says, “He’ll switch out at Pittsburgh. He’s thinking about saying something to the next driver about us.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ22sSWFqSst
“Will he?” She asks. The thought is optimistic to her.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWfQ0aqk90
“Maybe, he doesn’t know what to say besides ‘They’re weird’.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3uiBtAKIAr
Together they sit on a curb, their legs stretched out over hot asphalt. From under her baseball cap, a bead of sweat runs down Mechteld’s forehead before becoming lost in the scars crisscrossing her face. Marquita scratches her head as the stiches start to burn as the sweat collects under the hijab.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDYrvUPOja
Mechteld pulls out her pack of cigarettes and quickly lights up as Marquita desperately fans air under her skirt. She looks at Mechteld’s long sleeves and says, “We stand out with all these clothes on.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFiRz68SGLc
“We’ll stand out worse without them.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2KlYx1qFQn
Marquita thinks, “Should I try to stand out? Is being noticed the key to getting home?”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6cFBs1drVs
Marquita looks across the street to the convenience store where the other passengers were buying their lunches. It feels odd to Marquita that she isn’t hungry. She knows she hasn’t eaten in days, yet the absence of hunger pangs is discomforting.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOrT9HeY8XO
Turning to Mechteld she asks, “Do you really never eat?”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZoDGjCfyB2
“Only on rare occasions. Some immortals keep up the ritual, but it seems redundant to me.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSeg3WyPVtr
Marquita thinks about an existence without food. For her, it seems to alien and unnatural to live without it. In Corona, life revolved around faith, family and food. She suspects she won’t have any of those things while with Mechteld.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ARXX4tppP
Marquita thoughts go to the last dinner she had with her parents. After their prayers, their meal suffered from several strained silences. It was the first dinner they had together in months, but despite his chronic absences, her father had made an attempt to be there and make her happy by making her favorite food. The memory stings Marquita’s consciousness as she thinks about it. Even with the silence and confusing feelings, the memory is precious to her.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhmxglEY8V9
Thinking about her last meal Marquita says, “I could never give up my favorite food-”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb0UBkxljoR
“Tostones.” They say at the same time.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQPWKidMEFd
Mechteld nods, “Yeah, I know.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVrzqt4kGcw
“Surely you have a favorite food?” Marquita asks.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHTS3HtUfk
Mechteld takes a long drag from her cigarette and lets it out slowly, “You’re looking at it.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ44DbN8HKpp
Mechteld rubs the butt of her now spent cigarette on the ground before taking another from the pack. Quickly she lights it and sets her pack and lighter back down.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDnC4WTY4P
Marquita asks, “Did you read from my mind that I loved tostones?“
Mechteld shakes her head as she breathes deep before letting out a cloud of smoke, “No, I learned that from your father.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrrKS5i7xMM
Marquita again wonders about her parents. Had her father gone back to work after only a few days of losing his daughter? Did they tell their family in the DR what happened? Had they planned a funeral? Or were they looking for her?717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4UcF53Hr8N
Marquita thinks back to the picture of her father in the paper. She knows he was hurting. His tired eyes etched in the newsprint showed a level of emotion she hasn’t seen in years. It was a reminder that despite everything, she meant something to him.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Nf8mHmw0Z
“He always made tostones when he came back from a long trip. He would pretend he was making them for himself, but he’d always make me the most.” She says out loud.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxjac3GBoKx
She thinks again to the awkward silences at dinner and at the hospital and about his casual wave as he walked away from her hospital room. 717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vyETb4jSO
“He could never say it.” She says as she keeps remembering his hand waving back at her. “He always had to be so hard.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxaxyIndNyo
“It wasn’t his fault.” Mechteld offers. “He expressed himself in the way he knew how.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0FS2Y746eM
“I’d trade all the tostones in the world for one real moment with him.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkLkIAyOVBW
Marquita hangs her head and thinks to herself, “Not even in the end could he do that.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSfuCMHxThW
“At least you knew.” Mechteld keeps her eyes on pavement. “He’ll regret actions for the rest of his life.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡowi6PyfMBM
Marquita turns to Mechteld with her eyebrows slightly lifted.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtqDac9YypF
“Or at least until I see him again.” She adds.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUSb4TT1Yuy
“If.” Mechteld corrects. “We’re only in Pennsylvania. You still have a long way to go.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNKI39puXNX
The thought enters Marquita’s mind, “Why wait and follow her rules? I can end this now.” But it’s quickly extinguished with memories of heads scars, fire, and her father’s unconcerned wave.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyESzhlBnpI
“Before he became scared of me he wasn’t afraid to hold my hand. Whenever we’d walk around our neighborhood he’d hold my hand and say, “Stay close, New York is the most dangerous place in the world”, but when we would visit Santo Domingo he’d hold my hand tighter and tell me, “Stay close, Santo Domingo is the most dangerous place in the world”.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgoJmkndCPd
Marquita grins slightly as she remembers, but her hazel eyes hold sadness.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Senpn9w7p
“I used love Sundays because my dad didn’t work. After church, just the two of us would walk to the bodega hand in hand and he’d buy two chocolate milks: one for me, one for him.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOyQpcp5dhH
“When I started to know things I shouldn’t, he treated me different. His grip on my hand became looser until one day he let go. After that he started to push me away and eventually he got his job so he could run away from me.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5x6vWqkEck
“It wasn’t you he was running from. It was himself.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyz7zAFOf2O
“Yeah, but when you’re ten it doesn’t make a difference.”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNJkaE1INVM
From the bus the hear the driver shout, “Five minutes!”717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFV1pgTjUKr
Marquita looks down at the small pile of cigarettes next to Mechteld. She realizes she has been unaware of how long she has been talking. For her, she finally had a chance to tell someone the feelings she kept to herself and despite the circumstances she feels there is so much more she wants to say.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkyMFM8N6H0
Mechteld stands and shakes stray ash from her clothes.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG7NU1kjdYw
“Come on, let’s go. Use your eyes and ears this time.”
ns216.73.216.224da2
然後按「加至主畫面」