But by the time she had her clothes on, she knew the truth. She had overslept because in her heart she knew she was done with this place. She had no reason to get up early because working for Minnie Wilcox wasn't her job anymore. She had found all that she was looking for when she first dropped out and went searching. Her music was back. She had something to sing about again. She could go home.

She didn't even pack. Just took her purse with all her credit cards and walked to the post office, which was where the buses stopped. She didn't care which one -- St. Louis, Chicago, Des Moines, Cairo, Indianapolis, any bus that got her to an airport city would do. It turned out to be St. Louis.

By the time she saw the Gateway Arch she had written a song about feeding the baby of love. It turned out well enough that it got her some decent radio airplay for the first time in years, her first top- forty single since seventy-five.

Tried to walk that lonely highway

Men and women, two by two

Promising, promising they will be true

You went your way, I'll go my way

Feeling old and talking new

Whatever happened to you?

I wonder what happened to you?

Spoke to someone in the air

Heard but didn't heed my prayer

Couldn't feed it anyway

Didn't have the price to pay

You got to feed the baby

Hungry, hungry, hungry baby

Got to feed the baby of love

She had her music back again, the only lover that had ever been faithful to her. Even when it tried to leave her, it always came home to her in the end.