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going to miss everybody, everything.”
    “I know you are, but you have to remember that you’re gonna do just fine,” he said. “It’s Miss Toni that I’m most worried about.”
    That only made sense. He was closer to her than anybody else. They’d spent time together listening to and talking about music—and life.
    “Not that I won’t worry about all of you, but Miss Toni… she just isn’t as tough as she thinks she is.”
    That surprised me. She was the strongest person I knew—well, except for Mrs. Hazelton.
    “It’s funny how Miss Toni went on about how she’s always been worried about you, but she doesn’t have to. All these years she’s been thinkin’ that she’s the one looking after you.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Toni thinks she’s so hard and you’re so soft,” Joe said. “I knows it’s the other way around. You’re the tough one.”
    “I’m not tough.”
    He put his foot on the brake, and I put my hand on the dashboard to stop myself from sliding off the seat. We came to a stop, right there on the road. What was happening? Had the truck stalled? No, the engine was still going.
    He turned to face me. “Don’t ever sell yourself short, and don’t allow anybody else to do it either. You’re a lot stronger than you think you are. Being kind doesn’t mean being weak. Thinking the best of people doesn’t mean you should think any less of yourself. Understand?”
    I nodded my head, even though I didn’t really understand or necessarily agree. Toni was the strong one, not me.
    “You’re not very big,” he said.
    “I know.” I was so small that most people thought I was a year or two younger than I was.
    “And because you’re almost always smiling, some people mistake small and friendly for weak. You have to use those things to your advantage,” Joe said.
    “I don’t know what you mean.”
    “Let ’em underestimate you. Let ’em think there’s no steel beneath the surface. You have lots of people fooled that way.”
    “I’m not trying to fool anybody.”
    “Didn’t say you were trying. It just happens. They see the smile instead of the steel underneath it. You, Miss Betty, are a survivor.”
    A horn honked, and we both turned around. A car had come up behind us. Joe waved at the other driver and put the truck back in gear, and we lurched forward. We continued until we reached the heart of the town and turned onto the main street of Hope. We drove by the Orpheus, where a lineup of people waited to go in for the matinee. I wasn’t interested in the movie that was playing now, but Toni and I had made plans to go and see the next release— Mary Poppins . That wasn’t going to happen now.
    The parking lot of the grocery store was full, and there were people loading groceries into their cars. Mulcaster’s front windows had mannequins displaying the newest clothes—all of which were far nicer than the cast-offs I was wearing. Walking along the streets were people I knew. They didn’t notice us driving by. They couldn’t know this would be the last time they’d see me, at least for a long, long time.
    I looked at each little store as we passed. I knew them all. They were all that I did know. The pharmacy, the little clothing store where all I could do was window-shop, the variety store, the hardware store. I silently said goodbye to all of them, even the ones I’d never been inside.
    We came out the other side of the downtown, stores giving way to houses, and then crossed over the railway tracks. They curved around, separating the town proper from the lake to the south, two silver slivers that mostly carried freight cars. A few times a day, a shiny passenger train briefly stopped as it made its way between Toronto and Montreal. I’d seen it many times but never thought I’d be getting on it—had never wanted to get on it. I still didn’t.
    Joe eased the truck into a spot in the parking lot. It wasn’t crowded, but there were cars—and people—nearby. We