And wait.
And wait.
How long does it take a woman to pee?
And then I hear a muffled sob. I put my ear to the door and hear another one.
“Josie,” I call out. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” A loud sniffle. “Give me a minute.”
I lean my forehead on the door. “Open the door.”
“I’ll be out in a second.”
“Open the door, Joz,” I ask tiredly, and she must hear something in my tone because the door cracks open, and I push inside.
In a small space, probably five by five, she leans her back on the wall opposite from the door. Her mascara is smudged even more, and dark streaks flow down her red cheeks. She’s wiping them away with zero results because her nose is running too, and her face is just a red, snotty mess.
A week ago, I’d be running for the hills if I saw someone looking like this because I wouldn’t know what to do, but I have the strongest desire to stay and learn how to comfort her.
I lean on the locked door and ask carefully, “What happened?”
She wipes her nose with the sleeve of my shirt she’s wearing and looks up from under her wet lashes. “Nothing really. Just feeling a bit sorry for myself.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” I probe gently because I’m just learning how to deal with emotional women. When my sister used to cry coming back from school, my initial reaction was to smash the noses of her offenders. When my mom cried when our father cheated on her, I smashed his nose. Well, I tried since I wasn’t big enough to do any real damage. Somehow, I don’t think I can smash someone’s nose in this situation because it feels like all the offenders in this case are living in her head.
“Not really.” She looks to the side.
“Okay,” I agree easily, scared to step on the wrong eggshell.
I must have done the right thing because she looks at me, chewing on her lip, and then decides to talk. “It’s just being here, with all of you, and seeing how real family and friends should work makes me realize how little I have.”
“You don’t have family?” To think of it, I know nothing about her. Not where she comes from. Not where her family is or even if she has one. Who are her friends besides our townsfolk?
“I do.” Her sigh is full of pain. “But it’s a long story.”
“Okay. You’ve got family. You’ve got friends. Many friends from what I’ve seen today.” She lifts her eyes at my words. “What? It’s a lot of friends, and every single one of them is mighty.”
“They are.” A beautiful smile of quiet happiness slowly spreads across her face.
“You’ve got me.”
“In what capacity?”
“I don’t know yet.” A slight shrug. “Do you?”
She shakes her head with a loud sniffle. “I’m not staying in Little Hope forever, you know.”
“I know.” I nod, suddenly feeling nauseous. “You have a project.”
“Yes.”
“Alright.”
“Kenneth?” Her voice drops an octave.
“Mmm?”
