The Grind Don't Stop (44 page)

Sparkle saluted him as he drove off in a cloud of dust. He turned to the lady, who was whittling on a piece of wood. He bought a cherry Slurpie and went to sit at a rickety wood table with a red-and-white checkered cloth. After a five-minute wait, he looked over at her. She was still whittling away, eyeing him nonchalantly. He nodded toward her and then pinched his nose. “You don't mind if I wait on the bus out on the porch, do you?”

She grumbled what he took for a yes and headed toward the door. Opening it, he turned back to her. “How long is the bus gonna be?” She held up all ten fingers without muttering a word. Taking that to mean around ten minutes or ten o'clock, he went outside and sat in a wooden rocking chair on the other side of the soda machine. He started rolling a joint out of the ounce of reefer he'd hidden in his socks earlier.

He had a pretty good buzz by the time the bus pulled up in front of the store a half-hour later. Since the bus was nearly empty, he eased his way to the backseat and stretched out. He began day- dreaming about the things he had to do in the forthcoming days.

Before he'd even realized, he had dozed off. The next thing he knew he was being shaken awake by the driver after they had pulled into the station in Macon. He placed a collect call to his sister Janet's house. Her boyfriend, Kenny, told him that she had already left for the depot on International Boulevard.

He casually walked to the counter and asked the cute little red-head cashier, “How long before the bus pulls out for Atlanta?”

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Founded in 1999 by nationally bestselling author Zane, Strebor became part of Atria Books in 2005. Under Zane's ongoing leadership, Strebor remains dedicated to its mission of discovering and publishing the best in minority literature today. Strebor has produced numerous bestsellers, including the three novels that Zane originally self-published:
The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth; Addicted; and Shame on it All
. Strebor's goal is simple: to make sure that extraordinary voices are heard and brought to life through the pages of the books we publish.