Jubilee's Journey (Wyattsville #2)(60)

Although Paul was still shaking his head side to side, Mahoney’s eyebrow shot up. “The biscuit place? Was that after you got off the bus here in Wyattsville?”

“Unh-huh.” Jubilee nodded.

“If I took you back to the place, you think you’d remember it?”

She gave another sad-eyed nod. “Yeah, but it ain’t me what’s gotta remember.”

Mahoney smiled. “That’s true, but maybe what you remember can fill in some of the holes to help Paul remember.”





A few minutes later they left the room. Mahoney stopped at the nurses’ station, scribbled a telephone number, and handed the piece of paper to Barbara Walsh, the head nurse. “Don’t forget,” he said.

“I won’t.” She nodded.

Mahoney took Jubilee by the hand, and they left the hospital. The slightest trace of a smile was visible under his mask of determination.





The Bread Basket Café



Mahoney’s original intention had been to go directly to the bus station and try to retrace Paul’s steps, but Jubilee insisted on first stopping at the apartment.

“Grandma Olivia’s a worrier,” she explained, “and I ain’t supposed to go nowhere ‘less she says okay.”

“You call her Grandma Olivia?”

“That’s her name, even if you ain’t blood kin.”

“Who said?”

“Ethan Allen.”

Mahoney laughed and shook his head. “Figures.”

Once Mahoney told Olivia of his plan, she insisted on coming along to see to Jubilee’s welfare.

“Don’t worry,” she said, “I’ll sit quietly in the car, and you’ll never even notice I’m there.”

“I’m gonna have to go too,” Ethan Allen said, “’cause I promised Jubie—”

“…that you’d stick by her,” Mahoney said, finishing the thought.

Although he knew the likelihood of Olivia going unnoticed was improbable, Mahoney agreed because he’d seen the way Jubilee clung to Ethan Allen. If she was in doubt about one thing or another, she’d look his way and wait for a nod or a shake of his head.

“Okay,” he said, looking over at Ethan Allen, “but we’re going to let Jubilee be the one to decide what she remembers and what she doesn’t, right?”

Ethan Allen gave a sheepish nod.





Within a mile of the Greyhound Bus Station, there were five coffee shops. Two were on the north side of station, but Main Street was to the south. Mahoney pulled up in front of the station and turned to Jubilee. “You remember which way you and Paul walked?”

She hesitated a moment then pointed toward the front of the car, which was north.

Mahoney pulled out, circled the block, and parked on the back side of the station, facing the opposite direction. “Which way now?”

Jubilee craned her neck looked around and shrugged. “This ain’t where we was.”

Three times Mahoney circled the block and parked in different places, and all three times he got the same answer. While the back side of the station remained unfamiliar, Jubilee was consistent in pointing north from the front of the station.

Mahoney was feeling good when they pulled up to Millie’s Luncheonette. “Does this look familiar?”

Jubilee scrunched her face and shook her head. “Unh-unh.”

“Not even a little bit?”

She shook her head again.

“Let’s go inside and take a look.”

“This ain’t the place, but we can look if you want.”

As it turned out there were no stools at all, just square tables with straight-backed chairs. They moved on to the Happy Burger, but that fared no better.

“This ain’t the place,” Jubilee said. Her answer was absolute, no shred of doubt.

They got back in the car and headed south. Mahoney drove past the bus station and parked in front of the Bread Basket Café. “Does this look familiar?”

“Unh-huh.” A smile spread across Jubilee’s face.

When she jumped out of the car Ethan Allen was right beside her and before Olivia could tell him not to go, he was through the door.

“See, Ethan.” Jubilee climbed on the first stool and started swiveling herself around. “It’s like I said.”

Mahoney followed them. He stood behind Jubilee and put a halt to her spinning. “Is this where you and Paul had breakfast?”

She nodded. “I got two biscuits.”

“Is that the woman Paul spoke with?” Mahoney pointed to a short stocky woman standing at the register.

Jubilee shook her head. “That ain’t her.”

Mahoney asked if Jubilee could describe the woman who waited on them that day, but the best she could do was, “Real pretty.” He looked around, and the only other person he saw was a skinny man stooped over and clearing dirty dishes from a back booth. Mahoney rose from the stool and walked over to the register to ask about other employees, but before he could do so Jubilee squealed, “That’s her!”

She pointed toward the kitchen and the blonde who came through the door carrying three dinner plate specials. She gave a bright smile and waved to the waitress. “Hey, there,” Jubilee called out. “Remember me?”