Mosquitoland

Mim is getting ice cream at a shop during a pit stop while the other Greyhound patrons get pie at Jane’s Diner across the street. She watches as a police car arrests someone from the diner. She overhears a local couple talking and realizes that she’s in Independence, Kentucky, which is where Arlene’s nephew, Ahab, lives. She decides to leave the bus and look for Ahab; the town is small, and there can’t be that many gas stations. As she’s back on the bus getting her belongings, the boy in 17C asks if she’s leaving. She manages to say yes, and she suddenly feels a tragic longing at the idea of leaving him behind.

Mim starts walking to different gas stations in the area asking for Ahab. No one seems to know who he is. She gets discouraged and falls asleep under an overpass while holding her mom’s lipstick. 

Mim wakes up to see a boy her age standing in front of her. He says his name is Walt, and he’s playing with a Rubik’s cube and drinking a Mountain Dew. Walt reminds her of her close childhood friend Ricky, who had Down syndrome. Walt says that his mom is “with the white pillows.