She had forgotten how simple it was to please a man. A little kindness was all it took. She used to be like that with Harold. What did he do to make her resent doing what came so naturally for her? Old feelings of anger started to rise, and then the thought of James’s shiny eyes smiling up at her from the couch instantly calmed the rage that tried to rear its ugly head. Alma took a deep breath and promised herself she would try to replace unhappy Harold memories with James’s sweet nothings. Two hours into the trip on the ancient Greyhound bus, Alma felt nauseated from the toxic smell oozing from the bathroom’s blue sanitizer water. She decided to change the fragrance in the rolling coffin. Using her hatbox as a dinner tray, Alma enjoyed a snack of fried chicken and potato salad. The other passengers looked on in envy as she devoured the perfectly seasoned feast before their hungry eyes. After she was done eating and licking the residue from her fingers, she dusted the crumbs off the hatbox, read a few chapters out of her Bible, then took a nap.
