The passenger seat in front of us smelled of stale tobacco and wet wool, a scent that had settled deep into the cracked vinyl over decades of highway travel.
Leo kept his forehead pressed against the cold glass of the window, watching the dark Massachusetts pines blur into a single gray wall. He was holding the hem of his blue shirt so tightly his knuckles were pale, his small shoulders hunched against the draft that whistled through the emergency exit.
I wanted to tell him we would be safe, but the weight of my own silence kept the words from coming.
A man in a dark canvas jacket sat directly across the narrow aisle from us. His heavy leather boot shifted on the ribbed metal floor, brushing against my ankle, and he did not move it back for several seconds.
I pulled my boots toward me, tucking my brown leather purse closer to my knees. The bus ticket from Boston had cost forty-two dollars, leaving me with exactly ninety-six in my savings account, and every stranger’s movement felt like a threat I could not afford to ignore.
“Are we almost there, Mom?” Leo whispered, his voice barely lifting above the rattle of the floorboards.
“Two more stops, Leo,” I said, twisting my wedding ring around my finger. It was too loose now, slipping easily over my knuckle since I had stopped eating regular meals after Julian passed away.
The man across the aisle looked up, his gray eyes scanning the overhead luggage rack before settling on my hands. He had a rough, sunburnt neck and a small scar shaped like a crescent moon near his collar. He looked about forty-four, solid, with the quiet posture of someone who spent his life watching doors.
I turned my face toward the aisle, trying to ignore the steady weight of his gaze. Outside, the autumn light was dying fast, leaving only the dark shapes of the hills and the occasional glow of a distant farmhouse.
Three days ago, Martha had called me from the big house, her voice trembling in that apologetic pitch she always used when she had bad news. She told me Arthur was slipping away, that his heart was failing, and that he wanted to see Leo one last time before the end.
