She bowed her head and said thank you.
He nodded and said he wished he had more but the woman told him that was plenty. She hoisted the bag and took the girl’s hand and thanked the man with a half smile and he held open the door of the café for them as they walked inside. He watched them through the glass door. A countertop and row of bar stools lined the right side of the café and the little girl tapped her fingers on top of each stool as they walked past and the woman dropped the bag on the floor and dragged it across the linoleum. He watched until a waitress took them to a table next to the window and he started to go in after them, to give them his phone number, to tell the woman to call him if her ride didn’t show up and that he’d do what he could. But he didn’t. Instead he got back into the Buick and he crossed over the interstate and drove along the highway, back toward home, where he parked underneath the shade of the carport and where he would then go inside and sit down with his wife at the kitchen table. He would tell her about the woman and the child and when she asked him what he’d been doing driving toward Louisiana in the first place he wouldn’t be able to remember.
2
THE LITTLE GIRL ATE TWO GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES AND A bowl of chocolate ice cream and the woman ate a plate of biscuits and gravy and they each drank several glasses of iced tea. It cost more than she wanted to spend but the way the child’s face seemed to swell with each bite was satisfaction enough. If only for the moment.
After the bill was paid, they sat in the booth without talking, the girl using the crayons the waitress had given her to decorate the blank side of the paper menu. Maben counted her money and she had seventy-three dollars. She folded the bills neatly and stuck them into the front pocket of her shorts and she looked out the window across the parking lot at the row of motel rooms and she thought briefly of getting a room, taking long baths, watching television, and then sleeping with the girl next to her. Between clean sheets. With the air conditioner blowing and the door locked. The girl said look Momma and she held up the paper and showed her a blue a and a red something. Maybe a b. And either a green c or an l.
“That’s good, Annalee,” Maben said. The child smiled and then she put the paper down and she drew a circle and began to create a face. The waitress walked by and asked if they needed something else.
“How much are those rooms?” Maben asked.
“About thirty-five, I think,” the waitress said. “I’ll find out for sure.”
“No,” Maben said. “That’s okay. You got a pay phone?”
“That way,” the waitress said, pointing at the door. “Through there at the bathrooms.”