Queen Read Free Page A

just to get Johnny Houston's daughters out of his life for good.
    The sound of a door slamming made him jump and then made him curse. Just to prove that she didn't call all the shots, he walked to the window and stared out at the house across the alley, giving in to the spite he felt obligated to show. But there was nothing to see but shaded windows and the ever-present, gray, weathered walls of Johnny Houston's home.
    No one waved good-bye. It was to be expected. Few had cared. Queen stared hard at the back of the seat in front of her and tried not to think of the hillside behind the bus stop. There was no point in dwelling on the fact that Johnny Houston would now be alone in Cradle Creek, because if the God she'd believed in all these years truly existed, then her father was no longer there, but in heaven.
    The bus driver emerged from the gas station, readjusting his belt as he walked toward the bus. Queen knew that it was time. In moments she would be gone. She'd never have to wake up and see coal smoke again. She would never again have to suffer the averted stares and hateful whispers of the people who'd judged her and her sisters as unworthy.
    The scent of diesel filled the air as the engine kicked to life and the driver shifted into gear and began to pull out onto the highway. In spite of her determination, Queen found herself staring out the small window beside her toward the sloping hillside, searching frantically for the single white cross on the far side of the cemetery.
    The bus began moving, faster… faster. In a sudden panic she stood and then crawled onto the seat on her knees, pressing her face against the glass and fixing her gaze on the mound of freshly turned earth that was her father's grave. Her vision blurred, her chin quivered, but tears never came. When the last sight of Cradle Creek had disappeared from view, she sat back on her seat, ignoring the curious stares of the two other passengers in the back of the bus.
    She'd said her good-bye. It had not been necessary to say it aloud. It had come from her heart.
    Her jacket lay on the empty seat beside her. The map that she'd painstakingly marked with yellow crayon beckoned. Queen unfolded it on her lap and shakily traced the yellow line with her forefinger, suddenly anxious to put as much distance as possible between herself and Cradle Creek, Tennessee.
    Today was the first day of the rest of her life.

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Chapter 2

     
    Outside, the scene became a monotonous blur of roadway and greenery. As night fell, Queen lost interest in the fact that she was heading west. The strain of the past week was beginning to take its toll. She didn't even notice when the bus passed through Arkansas and Oklahoma. But when she woke early the next morning bus driver pulled into another stop, she knew he'd arrived into unfamiliar territory. The Texas Panhandle looked vastly different from the great Smoky Mountains. It seemed to Queen as if sometime during the night a giant rolling pin had flattened the world that she'd known. Gone were the high, covered peaks and the lush growth of evergreen. Gone were the narrow, winding two-lane roads of rural Tennessee, where there was no place to go except straight up the side of a mountain or straight down into a canyon.
    She grabbed the seat in front of her and pulled herself upright, staring transfixed out the window. The land was flat, and brown, and it seemed to go on forever. Queen realized for the first time in her life how immense these United States truly were. And it was then that she thought of her sisters and wondered how they'd ever find one another again in a country where there seemed to be no end to the horizon.
    "Well be here thirty minutes," the driver called as he stood and stretched. "You can disembark, get a bite to eat, and look around. But don't wander off. I have a schedule to maintain and won't wait for sight-seers to come back."
    Queen realized she was gawking and quickly closed her mouth as she gave the world