Voiceless - M. Sinclair Page 0,2

was so young. He let me get away with things that the others didn’t. It also helped I wasn’t being paid like they were, so I had no contract to hold me here. Just my love of dancing.

Finally, we moved onto extensions and I let out a sound of relief as I grabbed the arch of my foot and bent towards the barre, my foot near my ear. Shit. That felt so amazing.

“Fantastic, Colette!” his voice echoed. “You have been working on your flexibility.”

You have no idea buddy.

I preened at his compliment, but then I sagged slightly. How sad was it that his compliment was the first I’d heard in forever? How sad was it that my own parents had never been to a recital of mine? I tried to shake the thought, but I was left with the feeling that something would have to change.

I couldn’t live like this forever.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you how long I’d been sitting there before I pulled myself from my daydream. I yawned and opened my eyes, looking around feeling a bit confused about why it was taking so long. I knew they had said they would call us when the bus was leaving and the alarm on my clock had yet to go off. In fact, it said we had around fifteen minutes. What the hell was going on?

Standing up, I realized the terminal was far clearer than it had been a few hours ago. The Seattle sky darkened as rain poured down outside. An awful feeling infiltrated my gut as I walked up to the counter.

“Hi there, how can I help you?” An older woman, maybe mid-sixties with silver hair elegantly pulled up, asked with a slight smile from behind the counter.

Well, she seemed rather chipper.

Honestly, I almost considered just taking out the notebook I kept on me, but I first gave sign language a shot. Was it too much to hope that she knew it? Unlikely, but what the hell, at least I could say I tried.

Moving my fingers in a practiced movement, I asked, “I was wondering if bus 574 is still on schedule for Los Angeles?”

Her brow dipped as she immediately put a pad of paper and pen on the counter, making my life a hell of a lot easier. I wrote out the message and instantly her eyes filled with concern and something else. Now why did I feel like I was going to run out of good news? Not that I’d really had any recently.

“I’m sorry, hun, that bus left almost three hours ago. We had to reschedule the system a bit because of the incoming storm,” she explained softly, “but that was only by about half an hour.”

Confused and my shoulders slumping, a sense of true disappointment filling me, I checked my watch. I looked skyward, realizing I hadn’t fucking taken into account the time change. This. This was not my day.

I sighed and looked back down at the paper, trying to figure out what to do. “Can I exchange my ticket for a different time?” I wrote out as her brow pinched further.

“Normally, yes,” she leveled, looking a bit unsure, “but it’s Friday, we won’t be having another one down to LA until Monday. You are more than welcome to try Amtrak…”

Alright, it was clear Los Angeles was not in the cards for me.

I quickly wrote. “What do you have available for tonight?” When in Rome, right?

Her eyes sparkled in relief, no doubt at finding a positive answer to my question, as she quickly pulled out a system map.

I listened to her explain that there were three more buses leaving tonight. The first was going back east, which was not my cup of tea, nor could I afford it. The second was heading to Canada. I hadn’t even thought to bring my passport. See, folks? This was poor planning. This was what I got for not preparing.

The final looked to be a relatively short journey, comparatively at least. I pointed to it with a questioning look, feeling hopeful since it went towards the mountains. Mountains were cool.

Yes, I was at that point of exhaustion that I was describing mountains as ‘cool.’

“Oh! That is the train to Galena and then Willowdale Village. Both are beautiful but Willowdale is an adorable tourist spot in the mountains that gets very popular during the winter season. The folks there are very friendly.” She nodded in somewhat approval.

My fox popped an eye open at her mentioning of the location,