The sky is closed. Business hours are over. Tired souls on the bus heading west over mountains of red clay on a four lane highway through West Texas going into New Mexico. Some look out windows and point while others sit in silence; thinking of wives left behind, children abandoned, mistakes made.

He sits alone as dawn approaches. Chicago is a thousand miles away. Muddy Waters sings inside his head. A flask is lifted to his lips. A quick drink and a cough. Prayers are never heard.

I want to see the ocean, he told her. That’s the one thing I want before I die: he coughed and sputtered. Spits out clear liquid into a red handkerchief.

What’s wrong with Lake Michigan? She asked. We could walk on the sand and wade in the water together. The wife grabs his arms. Don’t do this. She pleaded. Don’t go.

He holds up a Greyhound ticket. One way to Los Angeles. The old man smiles at her. It’s time. He said. We had a good run.

Calling from a phone booth in Albuquerque, he tells the operator to make it collect. She accepts the charges.

Frank, she cries. Frank. Where are you?

Albuquerque,  he says as Mexicans and Indians walk by. He coughs into his soaked rag. A little brown girl stares at him. We have a layover here, he tells her. Couple of hours.

Turn around Frank, she says. Come home.

I’m not going into some God damned hospice. I want to walk out into the Pacific. Feel something for a change. More flem comes up from his thin chest. He bends over and coughs more. The phone slips through his hand. He falls on the tile floor. Coughing and shaking. Sweat pours from his forehead.

Frank, she says. Frank. Answer me, Frank. She yells from a thousand miles away. Frank. Frank.

The phone dangles. His body is carted away in a silent ambulance. The little brown girl grabs the phone. She hears crying and a woman’s voice. Frank, the wife sobs. Frank.

Hi, the little girl says. Why are you crying?

Is Frank there? His wife asks.

I don’t know Frank. But I think he’s gone, ma’am. I think he went away. The kid’s parents’ motion for her to hang up the phone and come to them. I have to go  now, she says. The girl reaches high and hangs up the phone.