7:15 a.m. The bus was late again, and Lily’s toes were tingling. She hadn’t counted on winter being this cold when she decided to move here after college. The honeymoon period of living independently of all of her family and friends was over. She felt as if the loneliness would suffocate her.
“Hey, Lily!” It was John, a near 50-year-old from the apartment complex. “Little brisk, huh?”
Lily eyed him through the slit between her wool hat and the scarf covering her mouth. He had on a hoody and shorts. “Ya think?” She was not in the mood. John was nice and everything, but…
“Southerner.” He laughed at her ineptness to handle the cold.
Finally the bus came. John greeted the driver and then proceeded to walk down the aisle. “Hello, how ya doing? How’s your mom feeling? Tell her hello for me.” The guy didn’t know the meaning of the word “stranger.” She slid into the front-most seat and tried to shake the blurriness the cold had left in her eyes. John eventually made his way back and sat in the seat across from her. “I can’t wait for spring. How ‘bout you?”
She mumbled some kind of answer, but John didn’t even notice.
“Hey, aren’t you from Texas?” he asked her.
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, there’s this lady who gets on at the Junction Street stop. She mentioned that she is from Spotfield—or Spotfort—something like that, in Texas.”
Lily couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You mean, Spofford?” Spofford was only about 10 miles from her hometown.
“I don’t know. Maybe. She said it’s some little whistlestop—whatever that is—town in southwesternish Texas. Look, there she is.” He was pointing to a woman waiting as the bus slowed down.
As she stepped on board, Lily looked her over. She was middle aged with a pudgy waistline and bright eyes. Her face was warm, but Lily’s heart fell when she didn’t recognize her. She so wanted to see a familiar face. Sometimes in a crowd she would look for characteristics in people who reminded her of someone—anyone—back home.
John didn’t hesitate to follow the lady to the back of the bus. Lily focused on her own boots where her toes were starting to warm up. Tears threatened. A few seconds later, she felt John sit down beside her. “Hey, Lily. This is Carolyn.”
Lily glanced over at the woman who was now sitting in the seat across the aisle. “Hi, Carolyn.”
“Lily moved here from Texas a few weeks ago,” John helped the conversation along. “What town did you say you are from?”
“Bracketville.”
Then, out of Carolyn’s mouth came the most soothing sound Lily had heard in a long, long time. “Well, I’ll be. I haven’t met anyone in all the years I’ve lived here who even knew where those two towns were,” she drawled in the familiar southern Texas tongue. She smiled at Lily, and Lily finally felt some kind of connection here in the city. Her eyes had tears in them now—no longer from the cold but from relief. Meeting Carolyn was a soothing balm for the homesickness that was threatening to break her heart. It was the beginning of her realization that you can have your own community and “small towness,” even in a metropolis. God had answered the cry of her lonely heart and gave her a boost of faith just when she thought she was truly all alone. She had her own Aunt Bee on a Mayberry bus.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18, NAS)
“And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory.” (Philippians 4:19, NAS)
©2011 Tammy Maseberg All Rights Reserved