The Honey Bus by Meredith May

Author:Meredith May
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Park Row Books
Published: 2019-01-31T17:15:49+00:00

9

Unaccompanied Minor

1977

The summer after I turned seven, a letter appeared in the mailbox addressed to me. Granny read it first before handing it over.

“Your father wants you to visit him and his new wife,” she said. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

I hadn’t heard from Dad since we said goodbye in the driveway two years ago. I unfolded the crisp pages and held them to my chest, tracing the imprints where Dad had pressed the pen to paper, as if to convince myself that his hand had really made the marks, and that he had written these words specifically for me. It was physical proof that Dad did love me after all. Granny and Mom almost had me believing that Dad was gone for good, but now I had evidence showing they were 100 percent wrong. I believed my luck had finally changed, and now good things were finally going to start happening to me. Not only was I finally going to see Dad again; now I had a second mom. Grandpa had explained that step meant you got two of something. Could it be, that like the bees, I was getting a new queen to replace the one who was failing?

“I want to go,” I said. “Matthew, too?”

“He’s too young to fly alone. Airline rules.”

Granny frowned as she stuffed the letter back in the envelope, and I couldn’t tell if I had permission to go or not. She sat there for a moment, tapping the corner of the letter into her palm, thinking all this over.

“Let’s talk to your mother,” she said.

Mom sat up in bed, scanned the letter with a blank expression, and then let it drop from her fingers and flutter to the floor. She picked up her paperback murder mystery and resumed reading, as if Granny and I weren’t in the room. A few seconds passed, and she lowered her book and peered at us over the top.

“You two can go now,” she said in monotone.

“Sally...” Granny said in the soothing voice she reserved for calming elementary school students. She took a few steps toward the bed.

“I SAID GET OUT!”

Granny jumped back and put her hand over her heart, then shooed me out of the room, softly closing the door behind her with a click. I could hear Mom’s muffled sobbing, and knew that my trip planning was indefinitely postponed. I retreated to the living room, cranked the TV and disappeared into the canned laughter of a sitcom, slamming my senses with forced cheerfulness. I was determined to see my father, no matter how much Mom cried about it, and I refused to let my visit get lost in her sadness. Mom’s mood could suck all the energy out of the room, leaving everyone around her weary and hopeless. Now that Dad was reaching for me, I couldn’t let Mom ruin it.

Eventually it was decided that I could go. There was no direct discussion with me about it; just one day Granny let me know she had written to my father to make arrangements for me to visit for one week.

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