Jesse started awake as the bus jerked to a stop. Before she
lifted her head from her rolled-up jacket pillow, she reached under it and
grabbed the bills she knew would be there. Closing her fist around them, she
sat up and tucked them into the jacket so her seatmate wouldn’t notice. She
stuffed them in the pocket to deal with them later.
The lights were off in the bus, and most of the travelers
were still sleeping. Jesse looked out the window and saw they had come off the
highway and were heading to the station. This was a familiar stop. Good, she
could rest awhile.
When the bus pulled in the station, Jesse pretended to be
asleep, so she could be the last one off. As she made her way up the aisle, she
stuffed a $20 bill in each seat pocket she passed. She knew it would make
someone’s day a little easier when they found it. It wasn’t often she got the
chance to share so much at once. She tipped the driver another $20 when he
pulled her duffel from the bus cargo. His surprised smile reminded her why she
chose to live this way.
In the station, Jesse headed over to the storage lockers and
pulled the chain from around her neck. Glancing at the locks, she flipped
through the keys on her chain until she found the matching orange and checked
the number. 317. A big one, down on the bottom row, she remembered. She pulled
out the small backpack with a set of clean clothes and wrestled the duffel in. She’d need to get a
room before she could organize all that cash.
Next stop was the station diner, open 24 hours. Jesse
remembered the waitress, a tired looking single mother. From the look on her
face when she looked up, she remembered Jesse too. She smiled, “Honey, you’re
back! Good to see you again! Where have you been? Come settle in a booth and
I’ll get you a slice of apple pie with melted cheddar, just like you like it.”
Jesse perched on the end barstool next to the cash register
so she could talk with Barb when she wasn’t waiting on anyone. After the
handful of bus passengers cleared out, there was just a trucker dozing in the
corner booth at the far end.
“Barb, I been out all the way to the West Coast. I went to
the San Diego Zoo and Hollywood and I even rode the San Francisco cable cars.”
Barb beamed and clapped her hands with delight. “Girl, you
have the best adventures. Now you just need a man to go with you on one.” She
winked at Jesse, who ducked her head and blushed.
“I don’t want a man, Barb. You know that,” she said firmly.
Barb laughed and picked up the coffee pot to help another trucker who wandered
in. Jesse left two twenties on the counter and headed out while Barb was
occupied.
The hotel clerk smiled when she came in. She’d given him
sixty bucks when she left last time, because he called off some jerk that was
harassing her in the hallway. He didn’t know the guy couldn’t really hurt her.
“Hey kid, good to see you. I got a room upstairs for you.
It’s next to the ice maker, but that’s busted, so it’ll be nice and quiet.”
Jesse nodded, pulling bills from her pocket. “I’ll pay for
two nights up front. Jake, that ice maker was busted last time I was here,
remember?”
He held out her key and leaned forward conspiratorially.
“Kid, that ice machine ain’t worked since the last Democrat in the White
House.” Jake cackled and went back to playing a game on his iPad.
Jesse climbed the stairs and found her room. The hotel was
old but neat and clean. She took a long hot shower and climbed into bed. She
was asleep before her head hit the pillow. Didn’t matter though. She never felt
when the money appeared, no matter how many times she’d tried.
“I always want to have
enough spending money.”
“Your wish is my
command. Whenever you sleep, you’ll wake with money under your pillow.”
“What if I don’t have
a pillow?”
“Anything can be a
pillow, even your arm. Even your hair. You will find it convenient to have
something under your head.”
How quickly she had learned the truth of that. She’d still
been on the run then, sleeping in shelters or homeless camps. The first few
times she’d fallen asleep and woken with a pile of bills under her head, she’d
immediately been jumped for them. She’d learned to conceal her daily bounty,
although from the beginning she always shared it with anyone who was nice to
her.
Jesse woke in the morning and stretched, then felt under the
pillow for the new bills. Now it was habit, and she relaxed as she remembered
she had the room to herself and didn’t have to hide. She pulled them out and
flattened them, then reached over to grab her jacket and add yesterday’s bills
to the pile. She had most of the morning’s in a roll, plus another roll from
when she fell asleep after lunch, and then the wad from last night. She’d been
on the bus all day, so she’d only spent about $40 in food and $60 on the hotel room. She had managed to give away almost
$1500. She still had $1400 in front of her. She shook her head. She
needed to give more money away. Or get another storage locker.
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Dogs in house:
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Houdini
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February word count:
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8294
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