The Ride - End Of The Line
Watching as the bleak landscape
of eastern Utah passes before her eyes.
It is hard to keep them focused
for some reason.
They really haven't seemed right since ...
well, since she left.
They go blurry for no apparant reason
and it takes a great effort to bring them
back to focus.
Something else she will need to have checked
somewhere along the line.
She knows that she looks terrible,
her hair is pasted to her head with
her own sweat and oil.
The bruises and scars on her face
stand out like neon signs
for all the world to see.
'Look at me! See the battered woman!'
She considers charging admission
and the thought brings a faint smile to her lips.
There isn't much money left,
maybe thirty dollars or so,
maybe a bit more.
Her bus ticket will take her just over the state line
and into Colorado.
What she will do then, she doesn't really know.
Money will be a huge problem,
especially with the need for medical attention.
That need has become more and more apparent
during this long ride.
Her side is a mass of dull, throbbing pain
and her back keeps twinging when she shifts positions.
Her toe ... well, the place where it was,
will need stitches at least.
She has been careful to change the padding
around the missing digit
at the bus stops along the way
using toilet tissue.
She has long since discarded the old
blood soaked dish-rag.
A sign looms up ahead.
Large, brown, wooden sign with white letters
'Welcome to Colorful Colorado'.
Well, the ride is almost over then.
Now the struggle will begin again.
First, to raise enough money to pay for
a visit to the doctor, where,
she prays,
they will tell her that the tiny bit of life
still grows inside of her body.
(the child, Please, God, the child)
Where they will attend her mutilated foot
and her cracked and bruised body.
But money needs to come first.
She knows how to make fast cash,
has done it time and time again,
but the thought sickens her.
To begin her new life
based upon the evils of her old life.
Well, it can't be helped, necessity and all that.
The city draws closer, the bus leaves the freeway
and moves with the traffic
making toward the bus station.
She pulls her bag out from under the seat
and prepares to disembark,
fear nagging her mind, need driving her on,
the need to be free, to live
not a life full of hate and despair,
but one full of happiness and joy.
Maybe, just maybe, she will be able to share this life.
(the child, Please, God, the child)
Leaving the bus, she walks up the street.
As the clouds begin to release their
burden of snow upon the earth,
she looks for a place
to strike a deal.
Back