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The steer hadn’t moved a muscle, other than his mouth as he chewed his cud.
He looked just as content as always, and Ellen figured maybe that was what happened with old age. A person got more content to watch and didn’t feel the need to get excited about things.
As it was, she was plenty excited.
“Would you please stop?” she said.
“I’ll stop if you promise that you get out and I’ll never see you again,” the woman said.
“You need help. How could I not help you?”
“Because no one helps me.” There was bitterness all through her voice.
It made Ellen stop and think. She’d been blessed. She had...not parents, but her uncle had stepped up to be a dad, and the woman he married had treated her like a daughter. She had a family who loved her. And she’d never doubted it. She thought of Travis, who had never felt like he had a family who loved him. Maybe this woman felt the same. She just hadn’t had someone like Ford come into her life and help her out.
Or maybe, maybe she just made bad choices. Sometimes a person could only trace their misery back to themselves.
They passed the sale barn at the edge of Sweet Water, and Ellen glanced over at the speedometer. She was going more than eighty miles an hour. Ellen was kind of impressed since she hadn’t realized her car could go that fast.
“Would you please be careful? Alice is in the back seat.”
“I know. This is just my luck. I have to be the stupidest person in the world. I finally found someone who could take care of my child, do a good job at it, and I have to go and pick the one car that my kid is in. Man, can anyone possibly be stupider than I am?”
“Well, I could maybe give you some stories about some things that I’ve done that have been pretty dumb, but I don’t think I could top this.” Ellen didn’t figure that there was any point arguing with her. After all, if you’re trying to give your kid up, then you hijack a car with your kid in it, yeah. That...pretty much took the cake for shooting yourself in the foot.
“Thank you. You would make a great counselor,” the woman said, sarcasm heavy in her voice.
“Thanks. I’m Ellen by the way.” She held her hand over, noticing that the woman had slowed down to seventy-five. Or maybe her car was just getting tired.
Ellen prayed a little that she wouldn’t take her hand off the wheel to shake, but manners were ingrained, and she couldn’t not offer her hand.
“I’m Alaska,” the woman said, offering her hand but only taking her eyes off the road for a second. “I’m pretty sure that typical carjacking etiquette does not require me to introduce myself to the car owner and shake her hand. I’ll have to check the manual.”
Ellen stared at her for a moment. Then she laughed. “You just made a joke.”
“Yeah. My sense of humor shows up at the oddest times.” The woman rolled her eyes. And that’s when Ellen knew that this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
Chapter 19
“Did you not realize that it was your daughter that I was putting in the back seat?” Ellen had that question on the tip of her tongue for a while as they had been careening down the road. She didn’t know how else to ask it other than just letting it come out. Alaska seemed to be a nice person. Funny that she’d be in Sweet Water, stealing a car. It made more sense to Ellen that she would be in Sweet Water to get a glimpse of her baby.
Her question made Alaska sigh and some of the starch that had been in her back seemed to drain out as she slumped a bit.
“No. I didn’t.”
“Wasn’t she the reason you were in Sweet Water?” Ellen asked, and she tried to make her words sound gentle. She wasn’t trying to accuse Alaska of anything. While she had never gone down some of the roads Alaska obviously had, she knew it was only because God had blessed her with her uncle Tadgh. After all, she had lost her mother at an early age. She could easily have gone off the rails, being shuffled from relative to relative, or even have ended up in some kind of foster care situation, whatever Ireland had to take care of children who lost their parents and didn’t have family who would take them in, since that was where she was at the time.
“A little,” Alaska said evasively.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Ellen said, hoping Alaska would decide she would trust her, but knowing she couldn’t make her.
They drove a bit in silence, with Alaska slowing the car down to five miles an hour under the posted speed limit. Something Ellen noted with gratitude. So far, Alice had been quiet in the back, but...her safety was the most important thing.
“I knew I was less likely to get caught in Sweet Water. That’s part of the reason I dropped Alice off there. I knew it was a good town. And I knew Travis is a good man.”
“How do you know him?” Ellen asked immediately, trying not to be jealous. Travis had been faithful. He said so. And she trusted him. But, he definitely knew people she didn’t, including this woman, apparently.
“I knew his mom. I saw him sometimes in the bar begging her to go home. Trying to get her to step up to her responsibilities. At the time, I thought it was cute, but stupid.”
