HIS UNSIGNED MERCY

e on that bus, and it was

ed warning that said ALARM WILL SOUND. A roof hatch, which I di

e last row with my hood up, the notebook zipped inside the front pocket of Rosa's sweatshi

ed six

The thin one's phone was still in his hand, and he didn't bother looking for an empty seat. He looked straight down the aisle,

Then he sta

, over the sound of the engine.

watching in the mirror. I could see his eyes, wide and uncertain, an

Gray water below. A railing. A pedestri

ows. Tw

handle with

ir, and I jumped before I could think about it, hit the walkway on my knees and palms, an

ra

a thousand. I could hear him behind me, his shoes slapping, faster than mine. I'd been a girl w

t me at

ut of me. His face was inches from mine, rain beading on his lashes. He was

sonal," he s

ght, stupidly.

nt. I shoved him with everything I had left. It wasn't much. It was enough to get a hand on the rail

it like a d

nd my sweatshirt dragged at me like a hand, and the only thing in my head was a nu

od, and a low brick building at the top of the slope with a green cross painted on the door so long ago that it had nearly fla

r with my fis

ght ca

er, glasses pushed up into her hair. She was somewhere past fifty-fi

she said. "Go t

blood, and her wh

r God's

white room, a steel table. My wet clothes came off in pieces. Somebody swore, quietly and fluently, in

kidney," she muttered. "Lucky. Stupid, but lucky. Hold

hick. Habit won.

again, love. Lies bleed worse than the

in the back of my head, my father said Numbers don't lie, teso

hispered. "

edle s

it were a page she'd read many times and never expected to find again. Her glasse

she said soft

ew my f

a breath, pressed the gauze flat agains

been waiting six years for someone wit