You left behind a book at the Firestone service station. It had your address in it.

While waiting for my car, I read the first few pages. And I got hooked. I left town the next day, so I hope you don't mind that I 'borrowed' the book for my road trip. A 700 page novel, a road novel, should take care of some dead moments on this journey.

In exchange, let me send you postcards from places I'm stopping along the way. This is the first one. So okay, Buffalo isn't a tourist mecca. You've probably seen a picture of a trolley car before. I promise to do better next time. Regards, Nadeem

Niagara Falls (the Canadian side)
Felt awful about sending you the last card. Figure if I'm borrowing your book, I should at least send you something beautiful to look at. I hadn't planned on it, but I decided to stop at the Falls just so that I could pick up this card for you. Isn't that an awesome sight? You can almost feel the spray. It must still be hot back in New Bedford. Think cool thoughts. Nadeem

Detroit, Michigan
I nearly got you another postcard of an urban streetcar. Here they call it the People Mover. It's an itsy bitsy elevated train that just circles downtown.

I knew I could do better than that. This one's from the Detroit Institute of Art. Diego Rivera was asked by Henry Ford to paint these murals around a courtyard, depicting scenes from the Rouge plant, once the largest auto factory in the world. They brought in iron ore, coal, sand, rubber, and humans and out the other end came a finished motor car. Don't know where they dumped the slag, but the human wreckage is visible all over this sad city.

Cincinnati, Ohio
Got stuck in Detroit for a while. The car needed more repairs. Someone told me I'd find a few weeks' work in Cincinnati.

Fountain Square familiar to you? From how I remember seeing your face at the Firestone station, I think you're old enough to remember the opening scene from the TV show, WKRP in Cincinnati. I'm staying at a rooming house near downtown. I hadn't realized there are hills in the Midwest. I kinda like the feel of this place.

Cincinnati
Still here. King's Island, the amusement park, seems to be a big thing out here. Hope you're enjoying the summer in your own way. Nadeem

Still in Cincinnati
They have more malls here than any other place I've been. I guess there isn't that much to do around here.

Cincinnati
Hey, I'm feeling guilty about taking your book. I should have left it at the service place, in case you came back looking for it. Now I've started writing in the margins, so it's already mutilated.

Tell you what, I'll send you a brand spanking new copy once I get to California. Right now, the money's still tight. Did I mention before that I'm headed for sunny California? You can have the ice and snow up in New England. I've had enough to last me a lifetime.

Memphis, Tennessee
Picked up a traveling companion in Cincinnati. She's offered to share the driving and expenses. Her name's Sarah. She's cool, though she swears too much. But she has decent taste in music. We don't argue about the radio.

So what's the price of this trade? I have to stop in Memphis to visit Graceland Sarah's an Elvis fan. And we have to go via New Orleans.

In case you're an Elvis fan too, here's a postcard from Graceland. (By the way, I don't care much for Elvis. Even if Johnny Trudell did call him America's Che. You may not know Trudell. He's Native American. Look up his CD sometime. The downtown library has a copy.)

Natchez, Mississippi
It is hotter than Hell here. I don't know why I agreed to drive through the South in July! I hope the radiator doesn't blow. Sarah says we can afford to stop at motels with A/C that works.

We visited one of the riverboat casinos. We agreed to only spend a maximum of $20 each. Then Sarah got into a winning streak and I got nervous every time she pulled the lever. I made $40. Sarah lost $500. She says not to worry, her cousin will put us up in New Orleans, so we won't really have lost anything. Scared, Nadeem

Shreveport, Louisiana
The car overheated. Damn! More $$$ down the drain.

And Sarah disappeared. Left a goodbye note, saying she's going ahead on her own. Didn't want to burden me with the extra expense of carrying her along.

This place stinks from all the oil refineries. Couldn't get a decent postcard, so I'm sending you another picture of the Mississippi that I picked up in Natchez.

In that book of yours I notice that you highlighted sections about Marie Laveau, "the voodoo queen of New Orleans." Are you into voodoo or something? Well, send me some good luck then. I sorely need some.

New Orleans
Could have headed west towards Texas. And on to California. But thought to myself, I'm so close to New Orleans. And there were all these signs. Picking up Sarah (despite losing her) who wanted to stop there. The passage in the book that you highlighted about Marie Laveau. A blues tune came on the radio just as I was about to drive west. They all pointed me to New Orleans. So here I am.

It is hotter than Hades over here. But I'm enjoying this city. It's not tourist season, so I found a cheap room for the week. Sweating, Nadeem.

New Orleans
Guess what? I ran into Sarah, and she insisted that I stay at her cousin's. The family's away, so there's plenty of room. She told me what happened. She was feeling awful guilty about how she let me down. (She's Catholic.) She ran into a man who claimed to be a music producer and offered her a ride to New Orleans. She made a trade. It didn't seem to bother her. (She's Catholic?) She went to confession as soon as she got here. (So she's Catholic.) Should it bother me? She doesn't mean anything to me.

Says she wants to go on with me to California.

Biloxi, Mississippi
1 of 2
Call me a stupid, stupid Fool. With a capital F. I don't know why I agreed again. But Sarah wanted me to drive her here. She said more people win out here than anywhere else in the whole USA. She looked at me with those big, beautiful eyes of hers. Damn her eyes. I couldn't say no.

Why am I writing you this?

She had a wad of cash when we showed up at the casino. Where'd she get the cash from? She wouldn't tell me. I walked the beach while she gambled. More in the next card.

Biloxi
2 of 2
When I went to find Sarah, she was smiling ear to ear. She'd made $2000. Kissed me on the mouth.

I stopped sulking. Money helps to ease things, doesn't it?

Instead of patching the radiator one more time, I got it replaced. Sarah's money. She insisted.

P.S. Did you do something with your voodoo for us to hit this vein of good luck? If you did, thanks.

Dallas, Texas
Sarah did come along. Not much to report over here. We stopped at a water slide, just to cool off. We could drive straight out west from here, but Sarah says it might be more picturesque if we drive through Colorado. We have a new radiator, so there's no danger of the car overheating in the mountains. She convinced me.

At least you ought to get some pretty postcards out of this.

Kansas City
This place was on our way. Close enough. An old girlfriend lives here. I knew her back east, but she returned home to raise her kids. When I called from the road, she offered to put us up. It wasn't a good idea.

Mindy and Sarah just did not get along. It might have been Sarah's admission, after four beers, that she'd picked up that wad of cash by turning tricks in New Orleans. She never told me that, so why'd she have to go and open up to Mindy? It was all downhill from there.

Why is Mindy acting so uptight now, anyway? It's not like she's had a squeaky clean past. But she's found religion again. (Yeah, Catholic again.)

I keep reminding myself that Sarah's just a road companion. (In case you were wondering, we are just that, nothing more.)

Georgetown, Colorado
Isn't this place pretty? I wish I'd had more time to spend out here. The air's crisp and cool. We needed the break from the heat. Loving it, Nadeem

Vale, Colorado
Still here in the mountains. Sarah's fallen in love… with this place.

We're having an argument. She wants us to drive to Vegas, then Los Angeles. San Francisco's more my kind of place. I'm also afraid to stop in Vegas. I might just lose her there. There's a hunger in her that both frightens me (so okay, it excites me too).

Why should I care? Probably because I need her money now to get to San Francisco.

Whether we go to either end of California, we have to go through Nevada. Vegas or Reno, I know she's gonna blow her money again.

My map tells me that Reno's just a few hours from San Francisco, so what if she loses her cash? As long as I make sure there's enough money for that last day's gas, I am we're okay.

Reno, Nevada
Our second day here. Sarah had a winning streak. I left her at a craps table while I wandered around. I found her at a bar talking to a very pretty young woman. She didn't see me approach her. Sarah was asking the woman about wages and conditions at some "ranch" nearby. I left them alone and went up to the room.

When she returned, we had a huge fight. She wants to work here "for a while."

She told me not to act like I'm her father. I said, "I'm not."

What am I to her? Why does it matter to me? Isn't she just a traveling companion? Confused, Nadeem.

Oakland, California
Well, I made it!! Sarah stayed behind in Reno.

I miss her. Was it just what they call Stockholm Syndrome? You spend so much time with someone that you get attached to them? Or was it that she had the prettiest eyes I've seen on a woman? Or was it that we had some adventures together and she made me laugh so hard I almost peed while I was driving?

This is a beautiful area. Very different from New England. The weather's strange. Every five miles it seems to be different. It gets cold at night, even in what's supposed to be summer. After the journey, I'm not complaining.

Oakland
Sarah showed up!! I'm staying with friends and I'd left her their address.

She says the whole point of coming out west was to start a new life. Reno would have meant staying at an old place in her life.

We're going to look for a place together. From the drive we know each other's habits good and bad and we get along fairly well.

Just roommates, that's what she says we'll be.

I still can't read if she has any feelings for me. And I'm still confused about how I feel toward her. But I'm happy she's here with me.

Oakland
Here's your book. A brand new copy. I did promise this, didn't I? Thanks for the loaner. Regards, Nadeem

---

Two weeks later, the book comes back. There is a letter inside the package.

Dear Mr. Nadeem,
We are returning the book you sent in the mail to Miss Hyacinth Richards. We are also returning the postcards that you've been sending to her. We think we found all of them, though it is possible we may have misplaced one or two.

Miss Hyacinth doesn't live here anymore. She roomed with us for a few months last year when she first arrived from Jamaica. Unfortunately she left no forwarding address.

We have a confession to make. Although we realize that it is not polite to read other people's mail, we read the postcards you sent her. But we assure you that we only did so after discovering that you didn't know Miss Hyacinth.

We greatly enjoyed reading about your journey. We looked forward to the next episode. It was more interesting than the stories on TV.

Most of us in this rooming house have not traveled much in America. The few among us who did were provoked by your postcards to start telling their own traveling stories. Some were funny, some sad, others scandalous. We laughed, we cried. Thank you for making this an enjoyable summer.

We do not know either you or Sarah. But we feel that you are both good people, and we thank you especially for befriending Sarah. Many of us here, at one time or other, lived like she has. We are neither proud nor ashamed of it. It just happened to be like that. We applaud her courage to make a fresh start. We will pray for both of you.

Sincerely,
Iris, Rose, Camille, Jasmine, Cinnamon and Precious.

The residents of 151 Colfax Street, Providence, Rhode Island

Mahmud Rahman, on a sabbatical in Dhaka from Lake Merrit College in California, is at work on a novel.