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."