jar.
I tried to put the pieces together. The bags under her eyes. The rumpled clothes—she must’ve been wearing them since yesterday. “You left school and…what, came straight here?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry, I would’ve called, but there was no time to find a pay phone. I had to get as far away as I could before they came looking. Plus, I thought here… I don’t know. I thought maybe San Francisco could be a place where I belonged. Finally.”
I nodded. I understood that much. “So you took a bus?”
“Yeah. I thought about driving, since I had my car in the school parking lot, but I didn’t know the way. Besides, my dad would’ve called the police and reported the car stolen. It’s not as if I paid for it with my own money or anything. I drove to the bus station, left the car in the parking lot, and bought a ticket to L.A. Then when I got there, I switched to another bus leaving for San Francisco. By the time I got in, it was after midnight.”
“After midnight, last night… Wait. How long were you sitting on my front steps?”
“Not long. First I had to figure out how to get to your house from the bus station. It turned out to be a long way.”
My mouth dropped open. “You walked all the way across the city? In the middle of the night?”
“Yeah. I had some money with me, but after the bus tickets, there wasn’t enough left for a taxi.” Her eyelids were starting to droop again.
I shook my head. “Tammy, I—”
“I awake!” a tiny voice called. “Sharon, where are you? I awake!”
“Guess nap time’s over.” Tammy climbed slowly to her feet.
“What about you? Did you sleep on the bus?”
“Nah. It was my first time taking a Greyhound. I was afraid if I shut my eyes, I’d wake up with no purse at all.”
“You should rest. There’s a couch in the back den. I’ll keep the kids upstairs.”
“There’s no way I’m sleeping now.” Tammy took another sip of coffee. “I’m way too worried about what I’m going to do next.”
I knew that feeling, too.
“Sharon!” Penny called. “Sharon, where you? SHARON!”
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.” I did my best to sound reassuring. “Is it okay if I call my brother? He’ll get off work soon, and he might have some ideas about what to do.”
“Sure. I’d love to meet him.”
“Also…” I drew in an uncertain breath. “I probably shouldn’t say this right now, but…well, I’m glad you’re here. I mean, I’m so sorry about everything that happened, but it’s good to finally get to meet you.”
Tammy rested her temple on her fist. She wasn’t smiling, but then, I wasn’t, either. “Me, too.”
I called the store and left a message asking for Peter to come over as soon as he got off work. Tammy got Penny up from her nap while I changed Chris’s diaper again. Penny recounted the dream she’d had, which seemed to have been mostly about cheese.
The doorbell rang while the kids were finishing their snack (also mostly cheese). I’d tried to convince Tammy to eat with us, but she refused to take any more of the O’Sullivans’ food, so she went to answer the door instead.
“Oh—hello, ma’am.” My brother’s voice, the overly polite tone he saves for new customers, drifted into the kitchen. He must’ve been trying to figure out who Tammy was and why she’d answered the O’Sullivans’ door.
Tammy said something back to him. I couldn’t make out her words, but seconds later, he was shouting in delight.
“No way! The one from Orange County? What are you doing here?”
I parked the kids on the floor with a couple of Barbies—Penny loved showing Chris how to take their clothes off and on, and Chris loved drooling on their feet—and Peter joined Tammy and me at the kitchen table. He had no compunction about eating the kids’ snacks, and he gobbled down the leftover crackers while Tammy and I told him an abbreviated version of her story.