CHAPTER SEVENTEEN D: A ROUTE THAT DID NOT EXIST

Mara’s transportation plan ran into trouble on its first full week.
The technical college changed its morning schedule, and the hospital shuttle could no longer serve both locations without making patients late.
Three people waited at the fire station for a ride that did not arrive.
Jake called Mara when he learned what had happened.
She was already on the phone with the college.
“The registrar says their class schedule is fixed,” she told him.
“The hospital says theirs is fixed too.”
Jake looked at the three passengers.
One was the young welding student from the meeting.


The second was an older man carrying a canvas bag of medical paperwork.
The third was a woman who needed to reach her cleaning job before the office opened.
“We need another driver,” Jake said.
“We need another vehicle,” Mara corrected him.
“And a driver with insurance that covers passengers.”
Gideon arrived with a set of keys and offered his own truck.
Mara refused.
“Your truck has two seats,” she said.
“We have three passengers.”
“I could make two trips,” Gideon suggested.
“Not before the appointments,” she answered.
Jake watched the passengers check their watches.
He remembered how easy it had been to draw a line on the map during the meeting.


He called the college and explained that one student was delayed by a transportation problem.
The instructor agreed to let him join the class thirty minutes late.
Jake then called the cleaning company and asked whether its employee could start later that morning.
The supervisor refused.
“We open at eight,” she said.
“I need her here at eight.”
Jake looked at the woman.
“Can you get there by taxi?” he asked.
“Not for what they pay me,” she answered.
Mara arrived in her van fifteen minutes later.
She took the woman directly to work and promised to return for the other passengers.


The woman still arrived twelve minutes late.
Her supervisor sent her home without pay.
When she returned to the fire station, she looked at Jake with open anger.
“You told us this would work,” she said.
Jake felt the words strike harder than he expected.
“I thought it would,” he admitted.
“That doesn’t pay my rent.”
“No,” he said.
Mara offered to help the woman contact a local employment adviser.
The woman shook her head.
“I need the job I already have.”
Jake asked whether she would let him speak to the supervisor again.
“I don’t want you begging for me,

” she replied.
“Then tell me what you want us to do,” Jake said.
“Fix the schedule before you promise another ride.”
She left before he could answer.
That afternoon, Mara removed the technical college route from the printed schedule until they had a vehicle and a confirmed driver.
Jake hated crossing out the line.
Gideon stood beside him as he did it.
“A promise you can’t keep is worse than a route you haven’t opened,” Gideon said.
Jake thought of the woman losing a day’s wages.
“I wish I’d understood that yesterday,” he replied.
“Then make sure you understand it tomorrow,

” Gideon said.