The bus squealed to a halt, shocking Petra out of the long reverie that had entranced her for several minutes at least, stalling her hand in mid grasp as it surveyed her handbag. Her eyes sparked into focus and she dug again in her purse. She still poked around in the bag as she swayed up the stairs towards the chugging fare machine. The driver stared at her and intoned, “Where’s your stop, lady?”
“Mmm…I had it just now.”
“Where’s your stop?”
“Uh…the mall, I guess. I’ll do some shopping.”
“It’s two dollars from here, lady.”
“I know. Just give me one more—”
“I don’t have ‘one more.’ There’s at least thirty people on this bus and they’ve all got to get where they’re going. If you can’t front the cash, you’re out with the trash. Now move it!”
Petra froze on the top step of the bus. Her eyes ranged across the passengers. They’d all seen her every day for months and years yet they looked now on her as if she were a stranger. Stares and clenched hands greeted her. She looked to the driver, who rose and gave a deep sigh. Petra backed away and stumbled down onto the bench. The bus roared away.
She trudged back towards her home, struggling to control the quiver of her lip and keep her nose from dripping. “There’s money in the house,” she said. “I can go back again. I want to go shopping. I need to get out of the house. This is important. Gotta take care of me.” Her hand shook as she pulled out her key.
“Who am I kidding? I just want to crawl back in bed. What’s the point?”
She fumbled with the key and then settled back. Voices floated over her patio from the empty unit next door. She heard someone say, “Pug! Where’d you hide the blender?”
She followed the sound of the voices through her house onto her own patio.
“Hide? The word you want is ‘put.’ I put the blender away. So look where you expect to find it.”
Petra flopped onto her porch swing and took in the rest of the conversation.
“That’s what I’m doing, obviously.”
“Look where you expect me to find it.”
“Thanks a lot. Hey, what about the ice trays?”
“I’d expect those to be in the freezer but you never know. Of course there’d be no ice yet no matter where they are.”
Petra smiled and pulled herself back out of the swing. She moved purposefully into the kitchen. Her largest serving bowl worked perfectly to catch all the ice cubes.
