Carolyne

1991. Summer. I was in USA. I was on the way from east coast to the west by using go America greyhound pass. It was not the first time to cross from coast to coast, the first time I did was in 1986, because it was just a succession of new findings in the USA, I tried to do the same thing again in a different route.
When I was in Tennessee, a young white girl got on the bus. At that time for lots of Hispanic, native American, Black people, Asian, etc. so-called non-white, it's common to use greyhound for the means to travel long distance. But it was still very rare for young white girls to use a greyhound.
During that journey, I was not particulary fond of talking to somebody. That said, of course I had not decided not to talk to anybody. I was just not interested in talking to somebody. Any way...as a matter of natural sequence, I got curious to her and at last when we got together at the occasion of taking a rest time outside the bus, I talked to her.
We didn't talk a lot, just she used to be a student at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and I said I used to be the student at the University of **, too with smiling and talked something not so serious things two or three times especially in a occasion when the bus stop and took a rest for a while. She sometimes wear glasses, sometimes took a glance at me with a mysterious smile, any way we spend two or three night and day under the same roof, it's not a good idea to be unfriendly each other. In fact we are the same crew.
Many use this bus from town to anothewr town but it was still rare like for us to use the bus from Tennessee to Los Angeles, in my case I was on the way from Boston to Northern Canada via Los Angeles, though my case rather belongs to exceptions, her case must be one of unusual cases. During whole days long in our journey, she was keeping a journal in a notebook in handwriting. It impressed me much. I remember I felt I was unable to write a journal in English at that time though back in my home country I was teaching English 7 hours a day. Still my English was unable to catch up with the level ordinary American people can come up with. Still I had to spend 5 more years to be able to write something valuable in English. Any way the time I saw her writing a journal in her notebook in the bus, I made up my mind to be a great universal writer some day in the near future.
Our journey abruptly ended when she got off the bus in Los Angeles with just saying good-bye. Ghhuaaa. I just forgot to ask her name. We are in a greyhound station in Los Angeles, she was alone when I came closer to her, her boy-friend appeared from behind the lobby. No place to escape. I made up my mind to come close to her and ask her name. He yielded to me the last occasion in kind manner. I just asked 'What is your name?' 'Carolyne' That's what I wanted to know, without her name no memory could be remain in my mind, or it's just hard to keep on holding our 'wonderful days' of our trip. She was talking to me something unvaluable, it was OK. I was able to keep our memory with her name. She also asked me my name and I gave her, then our last conversation brought an end.
I was waiting to the next bus bound for San Francisco, while doing so around thirty minutes I was strolling there. When I was about to get to a que in a bus for San Francisco, I happened to come across Carolyne and her boyfriend waving their hands, or rather they might be waiting this occasion, 'Bye'.. Both saying, my true journey just started at this moment.