One Last Stop

Jane tries to get off at every stop but can’t. August, however, is determined to figure out the mystery behind how Jane became stuck on the Q.

August thinks back to Hurricane Katrina and how her mom saved a container of files about her brother from the floods before they fled their apartment but none of August’s baby pictures. She lost everything, making her think that “maybe, if she could become someone who didn’t have anything to lose, she’d never have to feel that way again” (114). Nevertheless, she can’t imagine not having her memories.

She talks to Jerry, the cook at Billy’s, since he was there from the beginning. Soon, she stops going to class and work, throwing herself into helping Jane. She starts bringing her food to trigger memories based on taste. Her coffee order was a chocolate chip bagel with peanut butter and a coffee with two creams and five sugars. The smells of coffee and the taste of peanut butter bring back other memories, like Jane’s arrival in New York and students in her elementary school.

August helps her remember song lyrics, and Jane is amazed by August’s phone. She gets Jane a burner phone, teaching her how to text, and she learns about Jane’s many relationships with women, trying not to get jealous. She writes down everything she learns, but when Jane grows tired of talking, she asks about August’s life.

She can’t find a Jane Su in the phone book, and Jane only realized that she was stuck the day she met August. When August stopped riding the Q for a week, Jane started to forget again that she was stuck.

August takes Myla to meet Jane after Myla begs her to do so. When they get off the train, Myla is convinced that Jane is in love with August. They learn of an upcoming shutdown on the Q, beginning September 1, which could mean that Jane will disappear.

Myla suggests that something happened on the train that caused Jane to exist out of time. The Q is her one anchor point as she flickers through time, even if she doesn’t experienced it in the same linear way that Myla and August do. As a result, they need to figure out what happened to Jane on the train before the service on the line begins. August decides to put her feelings aside so that she can focus on helping Jane.

However, the next time August boards the train, Jane says, “I think I should kiss you” (137). She suggests this because August, soaked from the rain, reminds her of a kiss, and she thinks that recreating a moment might spark a memory. August agrees to kiss Jane “for […] research” (139). They kiss near the train’s emergency exit, and August’s feelings for Jane solidify.

When they part, Jane remembers being in New Orleans and having lived there. She recounts kissing a girl named Jenny and going to different restaurants in the French Quarter—but all August can think about is the kiss.

The next morning, August realizes that her bank account is down to $23. She ignores calls from her mother and from Billy’s, as well as her school email, to open a text from Jane asking her to bring dumplings. When she does, she tries to ignore the fact that they look like a couple to every other person on the train.

The reason that Jane asks August to bring dumplings is a half-memory of a restaurant in Chinatown where Jane used to go until she slept with the cook’s ex-girlfriend. August, knowing how difficult it would be to narrow down the restaurant, suggests that they kiss again “for research” (139). Jane explains how she remembers kissing the girl from the restaurant, and then she and August re-enact it. August tries to remind herself that it’s not her and Jane, it’s Jane and the girl in her memory who are kissing.

The memory that follows is of a woman named Mingxia and how Jane took her to her first apartment in the city. Using public records, August discovers that Jane moved there in February 1975. As a result, they start kissing more often, bringing back other memories from Jane’s past.

Eventually, August returns to work, where she discovers that Billy’s is closing because the landlord is doubling the rent. Billy—the owner—can’t afford it.

Returning to school, she learns that she’s only one semester away from graduation, which she can’t quite believe. On the train, she confesses to Jane that she doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. Jane takes her to the emergency exit of the train, pulling her onto the platform between trains. August realizes that this is the first time she’s seen Jane outside the subway car, and she jumps across. They go from train to train until August is the first one to jump between cars. They sit together, and Jane asks what scares August the most, to which she replies, “I don’t know who I am” (164).

Jane tells her to focus on the present, relating an example of a girl she dated who’d draw the space around a person before filling in the figure. She explains:

‘Maybe I don’t know what fills it in yet, but I can look at the space around where I sit in the world, what creates that shape, and I can care about what it’s made of, if it’s good, if it hurts anyone, if it makes people happy, if it makes me happy. And that can be enough for now’ (164-65).

August thanks her, and as she realizes how close she is to Jane, she sees something in her eyes that suggests that maybe there is something between them. When Jane calls August her “best friend,” however, August immediately feels like that’s all they’ll ever be.

Later, August explains to Myla that she’s been kissing Jane to help her. August also says that she knows it’s a bad idea and suggests that finding her a radio might be something they can do instead to help bring back memories. She drops a radio off to Jane, avoids kissing her when Jane tells her about a girl in Los Angeles, and then goes to work.

On Saturday, Jane texts her to tune into the radio to hear a song she requested, which quickly becomes another routine. Sometimes she requests songs from memories; other times she requests songs that she wants August to hear.

Time passes, and soon August asks Wes for help picking up a mattress and a desk. He’s surprised that she wants to, given that she doesn’t have many belongings, and August admits that she “found somewhere worth putting stuff in” (171). They ask Isaiah for help because he has a car, and August quickly realizes that the two of them are in love. On the way back to their apartment, Jane texts her, telling her to tune into the radio to listen to “Love of My Life” by Queen. August wonders what it means about her and Jane.

At home, she learns that Wes and Isaiah aren’t dating because Wes thinks he’d disappoint Isaiah. She decides to ask Jane what the song means, and Jane says she remembers listening to it when she was 20 and that it was one of the most romantic songs she could think of.

August, Niko, Myla, and Wes go over to Isaiah’s for his annual drag family Easter brunch. It’s at seven o’ clock and quickly turns into a party. Eventually, August realizes that Jane is bored and is repeatedly texting her. By this time, August is drunk, and Myla calls Jane. She explains what’s happening and then keeps Jane on speaker in her pocket.

August asks Niko when he knew he was a psychic, but Niko thought she was going to ask when he knew he was transgender. He says, “‘Whenever someone asks me personal questions, it’s always about being trans […] But it’s funny because the answer’s the same. I just always knew’” (185). August can’t imagine not questioning something that big about herself. Niko’s parents support him on both fronts.

When Isaiah realizes that Jane is speaking from August’s pocket, all of August’s roommates call Jane her “girlfriend”—much to August’s embarrassment—and Isaiah invites Jane to come, not understanding that she can’t leave the Q. However, once he remembers the séance, he decides to take the party to the subway, declaring it Jane’s birthday party.

As August observes another couple—surprised to find that two of her coworkers are dating—she finds that she wants to belong to someone. When the doors open and they pile into the Q, Jane thanks her. August feels excited, for once wanting to be involved in the action.

Feeling courageous, August kisses Jane but is disappointed when Jane stops. August tastes of peanut, and it reminds her of being a kid and eating fah sung tong. Jane reveals that her real name is Su Biyu. August immediately leaps into investigative action, getting her to remember her parents’ names and that she’s originally from San Francisco. Then, it all rushes back, and Jane remembers everything.