Ready To Go (3 page)

The girl nodded. “Thanks,” she said, once more. This time, she just sounded distracted.

He reached into his pocket as a thought struck him, and pulled out the button. “And here. Because you were on the tour.”

She took it, and a bemused smile crossed her face. “Uh, okay,” she said with a little laugh. “Thanks.”

Daniel stepped off the bus and watched it drive away. He needed to pick up his car and go home. He had a lot of work to do.

There was a bus that went directly to his apartment, but he drove anyway just because he liked to. Maybe it was that he loved his car too much, an old Mazda 626 that he kept in good condition. He was proud of driving it around. It got him anywhere he needed to go. He could drive this baby across the country and back, and nothing would be wrong with it except being out of gas.

Daniel checked the time on his phone as he walked, almost ran, to the parking garage—then he had to pull the phone out of his pocket again when he realized he forgot to look at the time. It wasn’t too late. He’d have time to get his work for the day done. He averted his eyes as he passed a homeless man on the corner, mentally promising to drop a coin in his bucket another day.

He got to his car, paid the parking fee, and started to drive back home. He wasn’t paying attention to the road. He watched for joggers and harried students crossing the street without looking for cars, but he wasn’t thinking of which turn to take or how fast to go. His mind was on the girl at the museum. It was rare that anyone his age went on the tour. She’d seemed out of place there, but she had been paying attention to his speech, which was more than all of the kids and most of the parents did. And she was cute, and she talked about Land Before Time without acting like she was too old for it. In Daniel’s opinion, no one was ever too old for a movie about talking dinosaurs.

If she went on his tour again, instead of just giving her a pin, he’d ask her out. But he saw a lot of kids come through and never come back. Why would a 20-something girl be any different?

This 20-something girl made it to the library, and was still thinking about that tour guide. Nicole fingered the button in her pocket as she sat in the library, waiting for it to close. She knew there was no use thinking about that guy. He was kind of hot, she wouldn’t deny that, but there was absolutely no point to it. She would be leaving the city tomorrow, and never see the tour guide again. She’d made it a point not to do anything that might be even slightly seen as flirting, even carefully making sure no part of her touched any part of him on the bus. Then he gave her that button and she figured she’d failed. But if he’d
really
been interested, he would have asked for her number, or asked her to skip the library and just go to his apartment, some cheap shot like that. There was no use thinking about him, and she wouldn’t waste time worrying that she was disappointing him.

“Attention, library patrons. The library will be closing in five minutes. Please come to the front to check out your books.”

Nicole stood from her beanbag. She’d settled into the children’s section while she waited. She unzipped her suitcase just to make sure, once more, that everything was there. Money, check. Clothes, check. Subway sandwich that would be both dinner and breakfast, check. She zipped the case closed and headed not to the front, but to the restrooms.

She figured she could hide in there, but what if they checked the stalls for people like her? The library must have been like the Hilton for those without a bed. Cushy couches all over the place, air conditioning that probably wouldn’t have been shut off. She entered a stall. She’d figure out what she was doing as she went.

She hung her suitcase on the coat hook in the stall. It slid off and landed on her foot. Sucking air through her teeth in pain, she gingerly lifted up the suitcase and tried to hang it again. This time, it stayed. She backed up to straddling the toilet, and carefully stepped up to stand on the ceramic seat, crouching down so she wouldn’t be seen over the top. No one would look under the door and see anything suspicious.

But what if they opened the doors? She couldn’t stay there. Nicole stepped off the toilet and tried to open the door. It swung open about four inches before the suitcase hanging off the back stopped it. There was no way Nicole was getting through that space. With a sigh, she dropped to her knees on the floor of the stall, then to her stomach, shimmying her legs into the next stall over. If she couldn’t go through the door, she’d go under the wall. There was a good foot between the divider and the floor, and she wasn’t exactly big.

She reached out her hands and started to pull herself forward, using her toes to shove along. Her chest and stomach slid through a puddle of something very wet and cold. Probably just some water. She hoped it was just some water. Whatever it was, it was spreading across the fabric of her shirt and making Nicole shiver in cold and disgust.

She made it through the gap and stood up in the stall. She was in the handicapped one, which afforded her space to stand up with ease. Now she had to figure out just what the heck she was going to do to hide in here. Crouching behind the toilet would be a bad idea, but it looked like the only cover in the open stall.

Nicole sighed and leaned against the bar by the door, trying to figure out what she could do. Her sigh echoed throughout the empty bathroom. She glanced at the door. If she were any lighter, she could just hang off of that hook like her suitcase did. She doubted the suitcase was much heavier than her with all the stuff she’d jammed in it.

But maybe it wasn’t impossible. She stood up straight, held onto the hook to balance herself, and stepped up onto the bar attached to the wall. The door swung towards her, and she hung on with all her might to keep on the bar. Finally, the door stabilized, and she was able to bring her other foot up on the bar. It was hard to stay there, but she grasped onto that hook and planted her feet onto the bar and waited.

Her arms were close to giving out when she finally heard the door to the bathroom open. Someone walked over to the first stall and hit the door. It swung open with a loud BANG as it hit the wall. The footsteps moved on. The second door hit the wall a little quieter, with more of a BAM. Nicole held her breath as the footsteps reached the stall with her suitcase. There was no bang or bam, but instead a muffled THUD. This satisfied whoever was out there enough that the footsteps moved to Nicole’s stall.

She grasped the hook tighter and tried not to let her feet slip as she was pushed backwards. There was no sound as her body hit the wall, but apparently the guard wasn’t listening to that. The footsteps were fine enough with the fact that the door opened that they walked out of the bathroom. The lights were shut off, leaving Nicole in darkness.

To make sure she was completely alone, she whispered a song to herself to pass the time as she waited. Once the last bottle of beer was off the wall, Nicole stepped down. She stretched out her arms, finally feeling the cramps that had developed. The wetness on her shirt had mostly dried, but it still grossed her out to think about it. Besides, she had to go back through that puddle to get her suitcase.

Once she’d crawled through the puddle of hopefully water again and had retrieved her suitcase, Nicole stripped off her shirt. There was a bit of light in the bathroom, coming from under the door and reflecting off the mirror and sink. It was enough for her to see where the trash can was and stuff her sopping wet shirt inside it. If she put it in her suitcase, it would get everything else wet, and there was no guarantee she’d have a chance to wash it anytime soon.

She walked over to the sink, grabbed a paper towel, and started to wash off her stomach. She’d showered just that morning in the hotel, but she was ready to take another one now. But that wasn’t likely to happen for a long while, so the paper towel sink bath would have to do.

Suddenly, she realized just how bizarre this was. She was standing in a dark public bathroom in just her bra, wiping at her stomach with the cheapest paper towel known to man. It wasn’t even a good bra, just one she bought because she liked the pattern of smiley faces and butterflies. It was her good luck bra, even though the straps were worn and the bright pattern could be seen through thin shirts. At least it hadn’t gotten wet, and at least no one was around to see her. Life’s little victories. She grinned as she kept wiping herself off. She may have been stuck in a library in a strange city because she couldn’t go home, but at least she could smile about it.

The next morning, Daniel found himself in the library long before any classes started. At least he wouldn’t miss them. He needed to do a little research for a paper that was due by the end of the week. He’d found one perfect book there that the library on campus was missing—but it wasn’t like the campus library ever had a great selection, anyway. His plan was to get the book when the library when it opened, leave in time to get to get to his class. He wanted to sleep in and get the book between class and work, but when he looked at just how much he needed to do for the paper, he realized that wasn’t going to be enough time. So he was up early again. Mornings like this, he wanted to say screw it and quit school. It was a tempting idea.

There were a few other people standing outside the library, waiting for it to open, when he got there. Some looked like students, same as him, while others looked like homeless people who’d probably just wanted to use the free bathrooms. Or maybe they would want to read—it was free entertainment, after all. Not that it mattered to him. He just had to study.

A librarian came up to the doors from inside and unlocked them, pushing them open for the patrons. The small crowd pressed into the building, and then split up to head to their intended destinations. Daniel went to the reference books.

He was not prepared to see a girl asleep on the couch in that section. She had to have spent the night there, as she hadn’t come in with the rest of the crowd. So how hadn’t the librarian noticed her? He figured they’d checked the library before opening it, but maybe he was wrong.

He decided to ignore her, just let the poor girl sleep. He crouched down by the shelves and scanned one row of books, searching for the text he needed. There it was. He pulled it off, set it on a nearby table, and pulled out his laptop that held his paper.

The laptop made its usual musical jingle when he turned it on. The girl on the couch shifted and groaned. Daniel glanced over at her, and only then noticed her suitcase. It was that same ugly floral suitcase that he’d seen the girl in the museum carrying. That girl who’d asked for directions to the library. As the girl now sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes, he realized it was the same girl.

She noticed him, and her eyes widened. “Sorry!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t know anyone was here!”

“Did you sleep here?” he asked.

She stood up, stretching her arms over her head. Daniel couldn’t help but look a little lower than her arms.

“No,” she answered his question. It was clear she was lying.

“They do have a homeless shelter a few blocks away,” he said in what he thought was a kind tone.

“I’m
not
homeless,” she snapped. Okay, so he wasn’t as kind as he thought. “I’m just…I don’t have anywhere to go. I’m making my way across the country, ideally. I’m thinking I’d like to get to California, maybe.”

“How?” Daniel asked. A cross country trip sounded really good to him, actually. Go and explore new places. But he wasn’t sure she was going about it the right way, sleeping in a library—and the museum, too, he remembered.

“Hitchhiking,” she admitted in a mumble. “Sneaking into libraries to sleep. Any way I can get there.”

“Why?”

She glared at him. “Look, it’s nice that you’re trying to help or whatever, but you don’t know me. Stop acting like you do. I’m not about to tell you my entire life story, and you’re probably not about to give me a ride anywhere.”

“Sorry,” Daniel said, turning his attention back to his laptop. His hand wavered on the touchpad, gliding the cursor between the document with his paper and the Start button. He didn’t want to write anymore, really didn’t even want to go to class today. The girl’s comment about giving her a ride was sticking in his head.

He made his decision. The laptop made its little musical theme for shutting down as he closed the device. As he shoved it back into his bag, he looked back at the girl. “So what if I did give you a ride?” His paper could wait. A few hours or a day wouldn’t make a difference.

He couldn’t tell if her expression was a smile or a smirk. “That would be pretty good, I would like to be not stuck in a minivan with screaming kids again, or risking worse,” she said. “But where are you going?”

“Anywhere,” he replied. Nicole quirked an eyebrow at him. Clearly the tour guide was crazy. But he explained, “I’m sick of being me today. I’m in med school and I’m not even sure I want to be a doctor.”

“A doctor’s a good job,” she said.

“It is, but I want just one day off from trying to be one, and today feels like a good day,” the guy replied. “So how about this? I’ll drive you as far west as I can today. Gets me a day off, gets you a little farther.” He was definitely crazy. She didn’t know much about med school, but wasn’t it super hard and impossible to take a day off? This guy that she didn’t know beyond taking his tour was maybe about to throw his life away for her. She didn’t deserve that. She didn’t want to deserve that.