Page 72 of Small Town Hunter

I’m sure there have to besomewomen driving on this road.

It’s a plan. A bad one, but still a plan.

My heart fills with triumph and hope.California. A place I always heard was the Great Babylon.

“You can be anything you want to be here,” Mamie said when I went to visit her. “You don’t have to go back.”

Why did Ievergo back?

I picture drinking sweet tea on Mamie’s porch. Planting in her garden— she told me I could plant anything except “the herb”. I’d plant begonias and sunflowers, orange trees, and succulents.

Except for one big problem.

I don’t know where she lives.

“Population size of Los Angeles” says thirteen million people live there. Where will I stay while I look for her? If only I could rememberanything.

A bird flies overhead; the only other sign of life I see out here besides the flies. Crash would know what it is.

Loyolooooo.Loyolaaaa.

Loyola.Loyola Marymount.

I remember Mamie told me she bought a property close to that school. It’s a private university with a variety of programs. I could do anything from film to law over there.

I would love to go back to school.

I could apply there and live with her at that house on Lincoln Street.

Like a fish leaping out of dark water, the memory breaches into my head with glittering clarity.

1174 Lincoln.

That’s what Mamie said before Mama pulled the phone out of my hand. Everything `that happened after that — nearly getting run over by a train, nearly getting run over by Crash, Crash punching the Reverend, what I watched on the motel TV, kissing Crash, letting him take off my shirt and put my nipples in his mouth, letting him…focus, Trina!

1174 Lincoln. AndI just remembered the other clue, which was that she was moving close to Loyola Marymount University, established 1865.

Oh my God.

Hands shaking, I take the unlocked cellphone Crash gave me and frantically find the “MAPS” app. Jada said they made apps for finding men? Noted.

I draw up Los Angeles and type in the street address 1174 Lincoln, fingers shaking so bad I can barely hit the buttons.

1174 Lincoln Street, about a mile from Loyola Marymount University.

STREET VIEW.

I’m looking at Mamie’s house.

“Oh my God,” I scream into the empty nothing of the road.

I know where Mamie lives. And if I know, then I can get there. I have FAITH that I can get there.

Having a life. Having freedom –-learning.

Never, ever coming back to Tippalonga.

For so long I was a good daughter who obeyed. But now I’m choosing me. I’m going to California and I’m going to squeeze every drop out of life that I can.

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