Ledman Pickup

Twenty

  Leonora knew she would know when she knew, and she did, the minute that old gray beater pulled into the lot. From the license plate she knew that the driver lived in Grand Island, Nebraska, her next stop, but that wasn't all. The driver, a woman named Sarah Watson, had been driving a long way, all day long. She had stopped for gas twice, the first time around five in the morning, and the second time also for lunch. Leonora was already walking towards her when she wearily climbed out of the car, followed by her livelier nine year old daughter.

  "Excuse me,” Leonora said upon approaching, "I don't mean to bother you, but I'm looking for a ride, and I don't mind driving either."

  "Oh?" Sarah asked, looking suspiciously up at her. She was maybe a foot shorter than Leonora, only inches taller than her daughter, and was always cautious around strangers in general.

  "Where are you headed?" she asked.

  "Grand Island, Nebraska,” Leonora announced with confidence. She knew this was going to resonate with the lady.

  "Really?" Sarah was surprised. "You live there?"

  "It's my next stop,” Leonora answered definitively.

  "We're just stopping to use the rest rooms,” Sarah told her, "and I need some more coffee. We've been on the road all day."

  "Where are you going?” Leonora questioned her, although she already knew the answer.

  "Grand Island, just so happens,” Sarah answered after a pause. Her daughter stood beside her protectively, just in case she was needed. Both were in a hurry to use the potty.

  "Don't let me hold you up,” Leonora said gently. "I can see your daughter needs to go."

  "Okay,” Sarah replied, and they started to move away, when Leonora added,

  "But you might not want to get that coffee. I don't mind driving like I said, and you sure look like you could use some sleep."

  Sarah nodded and the two went off to the cement block building. Leonora waited by the car, feeling certain she would get the 'ride'. When the two returned, Sarah agreed. She was exhausted.

  "We've been driving from Tucson,” she told Leonora as she got into the passenger seat, and her daughter got in back. "Five hundred miles so far today, and another four hundred to go. I was hoping to be home by midnight."

  "We might just make it,” Leonora said, taking the keys and adjusting her seat. "Or within an hour or so I would guess."

  She pulled the car out of the lot and drove it back onto the highway. Sarah relaxed and even lowered her seat.

  "I haven't slept much lately,” she said as she nodded off.

  "I know what that's like,” Leonora said with a smile, not giving away that she herself hadn't slept in more than forty hours. She didn't feel tired at all. Everything seemed so vivid to her and she had so much to think about it was hard to remember a time when she didn't like to think at all, like the day before yesterday, and every day before that for years and years and years.

  "What's your name?” said a voice from the back seat. Leonora hadn't realized they had all failed to introduce themselves!

  "Leonora,” she said, glancing in the rear view mirror at the girl in the back seat. The girl had very short, very dark hair cut in bangs, wore pink-framed glasses, pink lipstick, and wore a pink sweater.

  "What's yours?" Leonora asked.

  "Saya,” the girl replied. "My mom's Sarah."

  "Sarah and Saya,” Leonora nodded, "very pretty names."

  "How old are you, Saya?" she asked, although she knew exactly how old she was. She had a sense that it would be safer not to reveal how much she knew.

  "I'm nine,” Saya told her. "My mom is thirty-one. How old are you?"

  "Twenty three,” Leonora told her.

  "I like your hair”, the girl said.

  "Dye job,” Leonora confessed. "Glad you like it."

  "I would like to be blond too sometimes,” Saya confided. "My mom won't let me, though. Says it looks stupid on an Asian girl."

  "So what are you? Chinese?"

  "We're Japanese,” Saya said. "Me and my mom, that is. Not my dad. I’ve only seen pictures of him."

  "Why is that?"

  "He died before I was born,” Saya said quietly.

  "I'm sorry to hear it,” Leonora told her. "Me, I never knew my mom."

  "Did she die too?"

  "I don't really know,” Leonora said. "My dad won't talk about her. Never would."

  "At least you have your dad,” Saya said.

  "Sort of,” Leonora replied. "I don't see him much since he went to prison."

  "Prison?" Saya gasped. "What did he do?"

  "Killed somebody,” Leonora calmly announced.

  "Wow,” Saya was impressed. "What did he do that for?"

  "Well,” Leonora began, "He says he did it because that man was about to kill a whole bunch of innocent people, and he didn't want it to happen. Says he'd do it again in a heartbeat."

  She paused, and as there was no response from the girl in the back, she continued.

  "Just too bad for him the man he killed was a general, and it was during the war."

  "This war?" Saya asked.

  "Yup. This one,” Leonora replied. They didn't have to say any more about that. This war had been going on for years. It was pretty much a whole bunch of wars all wrapped up into one continuous one. Didn't make any difference mentioning which battlefield, which country, which continent her dad had served in. It might have been anywhere. It had gotten to the point where the generals were so desperate they were always planning to wipe out entire towns just to stop the random bombs and mayhem.

  "My dad died in this war too,” Saya said. "He was out there when I was born but he never made it back."

  "It's a damn shame,” Leonora clucked, shaking her head. "I'll never understand it."

  The pair grew quiet for several minutes. Night had already begun to fall as they approached the outskirts of Colorado Springs. Still a long way to go, Leonora figured, but she was happy to be on the road again, and under her own power. She was never much of a driver - couldn't afford it, to tell the truth - but she did enjoy it every chance she got. She thought the girl might fall asleep back there. The mom was snoring away up front, but Saya soon piped up again.

  "We went to see my grandma,” she told Leonora. "My mom's mom. She just died too but at least she was sixty."

  Sixty?" Leonora asked, "That's not very old. That's too young to die."

  "She got sick,” Saya said. "Then she died. I didn't know her very much. The last time I saw her, when she was alive that is, she asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I was only seven. How should I know?"

  "What did you tell her,” Leonora laughed.

  "I said I wanted to help animals,” Saya replied.

  "That's very nice,” Leonora complimented her. "That's a good idea you have there."

  "Do you want to help animals too?” Saya wanted to know.

  "Well, not really, I guess,” Leonora said. "Never thought about it, you know. Seems to me like animals know pretty much how to take care of themselves. Not like a lot of people do."

  "You might be right,” Saya sighed, and sat back. Then she asked,

  "What do you do?"

  Leonora did not quite know how to answer that. She thought for a moment, and then said,

  "Well, I do have a job. Or at least I did have a job. Maybe I still do. I don't know. I kind of left it behind yesterday. I don't know if I'm going back or not. I was working in a warehouse. Not much of a job."

  "What do you want to do?” the girl persisted, and Leonora didn't have an answer.

  "Beats me,” she said. "All I ever wanted to do ... well, let's just say I don't want to do all that anymore. I guess I'll know when I find it. How about that?"

  "That's okay,” Saya agreed. "Maybe I will too."

  "So, why are you going to Grand Island?" Saya asked. "You told my mom it was your next stop. What does that mean?"

  "Going to see River Plate,” Leonora said.

  "You mean the Platte?" said Saya.


  "Isn't it Plate?" Leonora asked.

  "It's Platte,” Saya told her, "but it is a river. What's so special about it?"

  "I guess I don't really know,” Leonora murmured, and truly she didn’t. It was an idea that had popped into her mind and she hadn't bothered to question it. Maybe there's been some mistake, she considered, but soon decided it didn't really matter. There had to be a next stop anyway, so one place was probably as good as any, as long as it was on the way. And it was on the way to Green Bay, although now that she thought of that, she couldn't remember why she wanted to go to that place either.

  "Never mind,” she said out loud.

  "First things first,” she added, and she had no idea what she meant by that.

  She fell silent after that, and Saya eventually did fall asleep. The mother and daughter looked so peaceful that Leonora didn't want to wake them up, so she made no stops but drove the rest of the trip straight on through. It was nearly midnight when they approached the outskirts of Grand Island, Nebraska. A map in her head told her exactly which way to go to get to their house, and she started to do that before remembering that she wasn't supposed to know their address, and it would probably seem very strange to them if she did. So she woke Sarah up and followed the directions she was given. Soon they were at the Watson's small house in a quiet little neighborhood near the river.

  "I guess here we are,” Leonora said, pulling into the driveway.

  "Thanks so much,” Sarah said quietly. Saya was stretched out on the back seat, fast asleep. "I don't know how I would have made it. I was totally wiped out."

  "I could tell,” Leonora smiled. "It was my pleasure, really."

  "Don't you have somewhere to go?" Sarah asked. "I could drive you there now."

  "Actually, I don't,” Leonora admitted. "I didn't really think that far."

  "Well, you spend the night here with us then,” Sarah said, and Leonora did not protest, but volunteered to carry the sleeping child into the house. As she placed the girl on her bed and came back into the living room, she saw that Sarah was already setting up a place for her to sleep on the sofa-bed there. Suddenly, Leonora felt the need for sleep come over her, and she sank down onto the couch and passed out even before her head hit the pillow.