“Are you lost, my dear”, the woman said startling Jazmine. “Pardon me but I've watched you since you sat on the bench, is there something wrong or do you need help?”
Jazmine looked at her watch, it had been 2 hours. “No maam, I just lost track of time. I am waiting for the bus by 7. When do you reckon it'll come?”
“Little lady, the bus isn't scheduled for today. Don't you know it's New Year’s Eve?”
The colour drained from Jazmine’s face as a sudden realization of being stranded hit her. She checked her watch...7:40 it said. It still seemed slightly bright as if the day was in a battle against the night. What was she thinking about that made her lose so much time? It can't have been the little note he...
“Little lady, do you have anyone you can call to come pick you”, the woman interjected her thoughts that seem to always slowly but surely lead her out of the present. “It gets quite cold at night in these parts”
“Is there a phone booth around that I could use?”
“There is one just down the street. Take a left on Fisburn and then another left after Cottonhall, you can't miss it”.
Jazmine thanked the woman and picked up her bags as she attempting to locate the phone booth. The temperature was reducing, which was ironic since everyone knows, you get colder while sitting on one spot. Maybe it was the sudden discovery of being almost trapped in a town she usually stops at on her commute to work. She turned back after she heard someone calling. It was the woman, whom she guessed is in her mid forties, seemingly screaming towards her.
“What!?, I can't hear what you're saying”, Jazmine yelled back.
The woman screamed again and though it was quite faint, Jazmine made out what she said. “Come to no.41 Winthrop Street in case you need any help”.
“Thanks”, Jazmine responded reluctantly as if in a bid to satisfy the woman's conscience or acknowledge the gesture.
Jazmine walked down the street while muttering the direction earlier given by the woman, so as not to forget it. She waded through the snow, wandering how the town seemed ghosted except for the occasional laughter she heard emanating from old looking houses. She got to the phone booth. It also was an old looking, slightly red phone booth. A few of the glass panes had been broken and knife marks had been etched all over.
She picked up the telephone and rang. “This is Cullen March, I'm not in right now but leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you”.
“March please get back to me, it's an emergency”, Jazmine said and hung up. She dialed another number.
“Hello, who is this?”, the voice sounded blunt and foreign to her. Jazmine quickly hung up, convinced she had dialed the wrong number. “Should I call him, would he even help”, she soliloquized. “After everything”.
She felt a sudden sadness grip her. She had lost him after 5 years...after so much sacrifice. The thought of him saying, “I've grown tired of this, I think we should see other people”, made her heart ache anew. It had been 2 weeks and yet she felt tears rush down her cheeks as if it had been yesterday.
It was already 8:17 and Jazmine was gradually resigning herself to sleeping in the old, cracked box. “It’s as good a motel as any”, she muttered.
She suddenly heard a knock. “Maybe there is another stranded person in this little town in the middle of nowhere. They could share the old phone booth as a motel”, she thought as she opened the door.
“Little lady, are you ok?”, the woman from earlier said, standing outside the phone booth, much to the amazement of Jazmine.
“No... I'm stranded here, I dunno what to do” Jazmine replied amidst the tears now running down her face. “I'm all alone”.
“You are not alone”, the woman replied. “Come, let's go to my house, I've got potatoes steaming. You will have a hot bath and dinner and you’ll be right as rain. We can find a way tomorrow. No-one should be alone on New Year’s Eve or be far from home on New Year's Day.
“I’m Paula by the way”.