Episode 96

As they drove around, Miah began to see signs to her hometown.  "We're close!  Just a few more miles!"

"Yes," Ben nodded.  "I know.  I'm planning on going south."

Connor agreed, "Good idea."

Taking a detour off the interstate, he drove through the downtown area.  Miah looked out the window, smiling at seeing her old familiar surroundings. 

But then she stopped. 

"MISSING" posters were stuck everywhere, on every streetlight, on every door, stuck in gates, and in bushes, blowing in the wind across the road.  They were getting trampled underfoot and sticking to billboards and cluttering the gutter.  It was almost unnerving.  For a short stretch of road, the town seemed deserted.  Miah shivered. 

They came to a busy part of town again, and she settled down into her seat.  At an intersection, she saw a woman walking across the crosswalk with two little boys behind her.  It reminded her of her mother and brothers.  Tears sprung unbidden to her eyes, and she looked away, biting her tongue.  The woman walked into a store and disappeared from sight, and they continued through the intersection.

When she found seh could talk without her voice getting away from her, she managed to call to Connor,  "I wish I could tell my parents where I've been...  Could I?"

"No," Connor replied.  "They have to think you haven't gone far.  If you show up at their house before the police station, it'll look like you're sneaking back.  They can't see you until the police calls them."

Miah sighed, not understanding him, but letting him be that way anyhow. 



As they drove on down the interstate after their drive through town, Ben pulled off into a larger city, finding the biggest and most professional-looking police station he could find, and pulled into an alleyway shortly before reaching it.  All four of them got out and walked for a ways, stretching, yawning, and pulling their somewhat tattered and dirtied clothing around themselves to keep out a brisk wind. 

"Oh, it feels so good!  Just to have wind on my face, and to smell the ocean air again."

"We're not taking you to the beach, Miah, don't get all excited," Connor teased.

Miah lifted her hands above her head as if to grab the wonderful scents right out of the air.  "I'm going to the beach the moment I get out of that police station, whether they'll let me or not."

Gail smiled.  "Sure you will."

Ben looked at her and suddenly remembered.  "Where do you live, Gail?"

She looked up, and Miah saw something she hadn't seen before in her eyes.  "Maryland, and I don't have any way of getting there.  I don't have any money for a bus ticket, or a plane, or anything."

Connor stopped the group of them and looked down at Gail, and for her very short height, it was a ways down to look.  "I'm so sorry that we ever forgot to ask you about it.  I'm going to take you to the bus station right now."

She bit her lip.  "Really?"

"Yes."  Connor put a hand on her shoulder.  "I don't want you stuck here, especially at the police station where they'll wonder how you ever got into this mess.  In fact," he said, looking at Ben, "I'm not sure what business I have going in there either."  He stuck his hands in his pockets, as if to make a point.

"But--" Miah gasped out, "You have to come!  You have to.  Why wouldn't you?"

He scratched his neck.  "Your family doesn't know me, and you can mention me to the police but I don't think they'll care much about me.  I'm nobody special.  I'm not trying to blame you, but Ben, you were the one who led them to Miah's school, whether by going there or simply by your emails and texts that they were able to intercept.  You're the one that Miah's parents will want to know about, and I know you'll want to explain your innocence.  I will come back after I drop Gail off at the bus station, if you need me."

"We will," Ben nodded, and looked to Miah. 

"You and me, I guess," she shrugged, and the two of them turned to Gail and Connor.

"I'll be praying for your safe arrival home," Miah said to Gail. 

"Thanks," she smiled, and gave Miah a long hug.  Miah didn't want to think about whether she'd see her again or not.  "I won't forget you," she said with tears in her eyes as she let Miah go.  "I'll see you again."

"I hope so," Miah said.  Gail nodded to Connor, and the two of them headed back to the car.

"Oh wait!  Ben, I need the keys!" Connor called back after a few seconds.

"Oh yeah!" Ben half-laughed, fishing them out of his pocket.  "Here!"  He tossed them in Connor's direction, and he jumped to catch them.

"Got it!  Thanks!" 

Gail smiled at them before turning to head back down the sidewalk.  Miah had the feeling it was the last smile she was going to see in a long while.