No surprise, but they were the only people on foot at this hour. The early morning traffic clocked at speeds of fifty miles an hour. The only thing that could stop these drivers was a red light, and even that might only slow them to about thirty-five. Nobody would be giving some random hitchhiking family a lift. Especially not with the way they looked.
Apollo couldn’t call 911. He had no cellphone power left, and there were no working pay phones on the street. No yellow or even green taxis were out here, and even livery cabs were a rare occurrence. Some would suggest running out into the street to hail a passing car, but such suggestions would never be made by anyone familiar with the drivers in Queens. Imagine slaying trolls and then being killed by a hit-and-run driver.
“We have to wait on the Q11,” Apollo said.
The bus stop had a bench. Emma nodded and sat, cradling Brian against her belly. She raised her free hand and extended a finger, brought it close to Brian’s face. The move looked so tentative. Brian Kagwa was the only living thing that made Emma Valentine tremble. Finally she brought her finger to the boy’s chin. She touched him gently there and rubbed the skin. She put her finger to his lips.
She pointed into the partly open mouth. “He has teeth,” she said softly.
They both shivered with the pleasure of seeing them. Followed by a throbbing sadness in the rib cage. They’d come in while they weren’t around. Had he cried as he was teething? Had there been anyone to soothe him?
Apollo slipped a hand inside the parka and held one of Brian’s feet. He squeezed, and the toes wriggled. Apollo closed his eyes and grinned.
Apollo saw the days and months and years to come playing against the screen of his eyelids. He saw Apollo and Emma wrangling Brian into learning how to use the potty; waking often each night, for many nights, when it was time for him to graduate to sleeping without a diaper; sneaking vegetables into his diet and coaxing him to kindergarten; the tedium of doing homework with him; the intimidation when his homework became too complicated for them to understand; cleaning him up after his first real fight; the first time he stole money from them; the first time they noticed; the faults the boy would find with each of them; the age when he learned to think of his father as a failure; the age when he told his father so; all this—and worse—was going to happen in the years to come, and thank God, thank God, thank God.
Apollo felt dizzy with appreciation. He leaned into Emma as he squeezed Brian’s other foot. They both sobbed at the bus stop.
Brian caught sight of an airplane and watched it thread across the sky.
“There’s something I always wanted to ask you,” Apollo eventually said. “What was your third wish?”
For the first time since they’d left the cave, Emma looked at Apollo instead of Brian. “My first wish was to meet a good man. My second was to have a healthy child.”
“Yes.”
“And my third wish was for a life full of adventure.”
—
Some time passed, but neither of them counted how long. It was still early morning. Then Emma leaned forward slightly and gestured with her chin. Down the long stretch of Woodhaven Boulevard, they could see a bus, still a few minutes away.
It occurred to Apollo that the driver could give them a hard time if they didn’t have the fare. It sounded impossible, but who could say? They were a family trying to get home, but who knew what the driver might see? Maybe he wouldn’t extend a bit of charity to a trio like them.
Brian and Emma had been exposed to the elements for months—they needed to get on that bus and reach the care of a professional. That incoming Q11 took on the aspect of a lifeboat. Apollo found himself concocting all sorts of speeches to try to explain why they had no money to pay the fare but then remembered how he’d ended up at this bus stop the night before. The MetroCard was still in his pocket. He slipped it out and showed Emma.
“A gift from the NYPD,” he said.
The Q11 approached, its interior lights blazing. At this hour it was the brightest thing in the world. It might as well be a chariot pulling the sun across the sky. Nothing less would do for Emma, Brian, and Apollo. They stood as it slowed.
“And they lived happily ever after,” Apollo whispered.
Emma leaned into him. “Today,” she said. “And they lived happily today.”
“Is that enough?” he asked, looking at Brian, looking at her.
“That’s everything, my love.”