Print for a funeral home of their choice to prepare the body for burial,”

 

“I’m from Virginia,” she interrupted.

 

“Oh,” he said. “Well that’s okay. Funeral homes typically provide transportation when the death occurs in another part of the country.”

 

“What’s that going to cost me?” she said, thinking about the one hundred and forty-two dollars in her pocket.

 

“I don’t know what deals the funeral industry has with the airlines, but I’m sure there’s a fee, though I imagine it’s significantly less than full ticket price.”

 

Eleanore sat there staring at him forever. Finally, she said, “What else then?”

 

His face showed a brief look of shock and indignance. “I’m sorry, what?”

 

“You said there were a couple others, so, what else then?”

 

“Oh, right...well, we have a arrangement with the University of Miami School of Medicine. We could, at no cost to you, of course, send your late husband’s body up there to be used for research and educational purposes.”

 

So, it’s either go broke getting him back to Richmond, or leave him here to be cut up and pulled apart by half-witted medical students. I don’t want to make this decision, she thought. I really don’t. But I can’t just get up and walk out that door, leaving this guy to stare at my empty seat. Plus, I’ve got to start making decisions for myself, cause there’s no one else to make them for me anymore. I wish you were here to help me right now, Georgie.

 

“Nelsen’s Funeral Home on Laburnum Avenue,” she said almost without thinking. “They buried my dad.”

 

Almost immediately she felt better, not great, not even good, barely average, but at least she wasn’t standing at the bottom of the canyon of despair looking up at the endless, unscalable walls. Making even that small decision empowered her, revealing to her a source of strength deep inside she was unaware of.

 

“And you’ll meet him there?” he asked.

 

“Yeah, I’ll just...” What stupid? You’ll just do what? go hop in the truck and drive it back to Richmond? You can’t drive that thing. And just that quickly, she was back staring up at those canyon walls again, helpless and alone. She looked to the floor and mumbled, “I don’t have a way to get home.”

 

He leaned forward. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.”

 

She dragged her face up to look at him, and with fat tear drops collecting at the outer corners of her eyes, she said, “I said I don’t have any way to get home. My husband was a truck driver and we were taking a delivery to Ackerman’s, or some damn place on Key West.”

 

“Albertson’s,” he said, but his expression changed when he realized what a useless piece of information it really was. “Um...well, you don’t have anyone you can call to send you some money?”

 

“No,” she said as she watched the walls of the canyon closing over top of her, blocking out the sun.

 

They stared at each other across the desk for a few minutes before he said, “I’ll pay your bus fare to Virginia–there’s a Greyhound terminal on Key West.”

 

At seven years old, Eleanore Whelty saw her father refuse to accept three hundred dollars from her uncle in the kitchen of their farmhouse outside Lynchburg, Virginia. The next morning she saw a man in a dark suit, with a beautiful tan leather briefcase, the nicest briefcase she’d ever seen, take her father’s corn harvester because he couldn’t pay for it anymore. Her mother cried as she watched out the kitchen window while her father went out to the forty acres of fields and started picking the corn by hand. Her father joined the Army to fight in Japan, sending every dime home to keep them in the house. He stepped on a piece of coral while swimming in the Pacific Ocean, something he’d wanted all his life, to swim in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. His foot became infected and his right leg had to be amputated below the knee, ending his military career. They sent him home to Lynchburg and gave him a small disability check every month. He never farmed another day in his life.

 

During the cab ride to the bus station she was numb. She’d refused to take Dr. Tobeck’s money, but did accept his paying for the taxi.