Then he motioned to the back seat. “You got some mail that came for you yesterday. I guess ya didn’t see it.” I picked up a letter and a small box wrapped in beautiful paper and put them in my handbag. We made our way to the train, and Hosea got me settled in the right car. “You have a good Christmas, Miz Mary Dobbs.” “Thank you, Hosea. I’m sorry Anna won’t be with you.” “We’ll be all right.” I rested my head against the window and watched the steam billow up as the train left the station. My mind felt as foggy as the air outside, clouded with images of both wonderful and horrible scenes of the past months in Atlanta. I had hardly slept at all the night before. Faces kept parading through my thoughts—Becca’s, with her revelation about my father’s past, Parthenia’s little black face seized with true fear, and Perri’s, with her see-through green eyes narrowing.
