The bus arrived early in the afternoon, the first of six to arrive that day. The travellers got out and entered the small restaurant. Some ordered food, some used the washroom, and some went to the gift counter and bought T-shirts with Monument, the town’s name, on them or wooden carvings that were made to look authentically native but were really from Taiwan. It was almost Christmas. On the edges of the parking lot the plowed snow was waist high. Last year it was shoulder-high and two years ago it was ankle-high. So there was no rhyme or reason to it.
MonumentCarrie didn’t know who saw the young woman first, Albert or her. She suspected it was her because Albert, who was impressionable, often followed her line of sight to whatever it was focused on, especially when it was focused on some
