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Chuck was waiting for his daughter when they reached home. He asked Charlie how she liked the school and if she had made any friends, yet. Charlie realized that she had two choices: either be candid and tell him that the kids at school didn't want to be around her because they thought AD was contagious, or, she could shrug it off. Charlie chose the latter.

"I plan on returning, tomorrow," she laughed.

Chuck was satisfied; his daughter was saved and attending a Christian school. He could face his own future with the assurance that his Pumpkin was on the Right Road.


Before Charlie dove into her school studies, she wanted to settle some unfinished business, first. It had to be done! Someone simply had to put an end to this foolishness, once and for all! Walking into town, Charlie passed Logan's Garden Nursery, Megan's Blinds and Draperies, Dean Electric, Clark Plumbing Service and Supply, and straight to the bus stop where "Mad" Maggie Downen frequented.

Sure enough, the woman was waiting at the beat up bus stop, complete with her Dairy Cream cap, and all. Maggie greeted her pleasantly.

"Are you waiting for the bus, too?" asked Maggie.

"They're making fun of you. You know that, don't you?" asked Charlie, folding her arms in an assertive posture.

"They?" asked the woman, bewildered by Charlie's directness. This was something she was unused to. People either made fun of her behind her back, or they treated her as though she were too stupid to understand what they were saying about her.

"'They' is everyone in Twin Yucca!" answered Charlie, indignantly. "I don't believe you're as 'Mad' as everyone says you are, but you're sure not helping yourself by waiting at this bus stop every day!"

"But," responded Maggie, "I have to!"

"Why?" demanded Charlie.

"I have to wait for Wayne!" cried the woman.

"Wayne isn't coming back," explained Charlie, softening her stance.

"How do you know?" replied Maggie, her voice teetering on frustration.

"Because he's dead," reasoned Charlie.

"He is not!" retorted Maggie.

"How do you know?" asked Charlie.

"Well," she hesitated, "because."

"Because what?"

"Just because," confirmed Maggie, nodding her head in a knowing way.

Charlie sighed. How could she make Maggie realize that she was waiting for someone to come who was never going to return, on a bus that no longer even stopped at this stop, any longer?

"Wayne is coming back," affirmed Maggie, showing Charlie a small, silver plated bracelet she was wearing. It read, "Wayne James Downen, Missing In Action, March 10, 1969. 'Return with honor.'"

"But," said Charlie, confused by the discrepancy of stories, "I thought Wayne shot himself while having a nightmare. This bracelet says he's missing in action." She looked to Maggie for an answer.

"Wayne didn't shoot himself," replied the woman. "His friends were caught in an ambush. He carried two of them to safety after they had been hit. After he returned to help the others, he wasn't seen again."

"They never found his body?" asked Charlie. Maggie shook her head, solemnly. The story Charlie had heard at school was flawed in it's accuracy, at best. Maggie had been waiting for her brother to return from a war that, evidently for her, had never truly ended, while the people of Twin Yucca gossiped and spread stories about her until the truth was unrecognizable. This injustice only made Charlie's resolve to help her, grow stronger.

"Look," began Charlie, "no bus stops here, anymore. If Wayne comes back, it's for certain that he won't get off at this bus stop."

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