other platform. She looks down at her hands. She is holding her snack in her hands.
She starts to eat her snack again.
Someone comes onto the platform. He is pulling a suitcase behind him.
He sees Isobel sitting on the bench. Isobel looks at him. She stops chewing and she looks at him. There is still some of her snack in her mouth.
Isobel is sitting on the only bench on the platform. He does not sit down on the bench. Isobel finishes eating her snack.
She looks at the empty wrapper in her hand. She closes one hand around it. She puts her hands in her lap.
She looks at the man on the platform. He is wearing a cap. He does not sit on the bench. There is room for him to sit on the bench but he does not sit on the bench.
He adjusts his cap. He stands on the platform. Isobel looks at her hands in her lap. The radio in the station is playing music. Her knuckles are white again. She sees that her knuckles are white. She does not want her knuckles to be white.
She stands up. She goes to the end of the platform. She wants to be able to see the trains that have left. She cannot see the trains that have left. They are too far away. She looks back at the bench. Her knuckles are white again. There are tears in her eyes. She looks down.
She is standing where the woman was smoking a cigarette. The butt of her cigarette is still smoking. Isobel scowls.
She does not know why she is still here.
She walks into the station. There are washrooms inside the station. There is a washroom for men and there is a washroom for women. She goes into the washroom for women. There is a sink by the door of the washroom. Behind the sink there are two stalls.
She goes into one of the stalls. She closes the door. She does not lock it. She does not think to lock it. She puts the cover of the toilet down. She sits on the toilet.
She drops her head into her hands. She grabs hold of her hair.
She does not know what else to do.
The radio in the station is playing music. The woman in the station hums the tune while it plays. She is sitting behind her pane of glass. She is still knitting.
Isobel is sitting on a toilet with her head in her hands.
She lifts her head. She stands up. She opens the door to the stall. The washroom is empty. She goes to stand in front of the sink. She looks at herself in the mirror.
She scowls. She hates that there is nothing else to do.
She takes some paper towels from beside the sink. She wipes at her eyes. She throws the paper towels into the garbage.
She goes out of the washroom. She goes out of the station. The woman behind the pane of glass watches her. Isobel scowls at her. She knows that she should not. She does not care. She scowls at her and she walks out of the train station.
Outside the train station there is the road that leads to the train station. Isobel stands on the road. She could walk back down the road. It would take her to the town. She does not want to go back to the town.
The train station is behind her. There are the tracks leading away from it. There is the road. There is nowhere else to go.
She walks down the road.
Isobel is standing in front of the grocery store.
She is back in the town. She walked down the main street of the town and now she is standing in front of the grocery store.
There is a sign in the window of the grocery store. It says that the grocery store is closed.
It is late. She does not know where else to go. She tries to open the door.
It is locked.
She is standing in front of the grocery store on the main street of the town. She is not supposed to have a key to the door. She takes the key from her pocket. She opens the door. She goes inside the store.
It is dark inside. She is not supposed to be here. She does not turn on the lights.
She is hungry.
There are vegetables in a basket in front of her. She takes some of the vegetables. She is not sure what the vegetables are. She cannot see them. She walks further into the store. She takes other things out of baskets and off the shelves. She holds them in her arms. She walks to the back of the store. There is a door there. It goes to the room at the back of the store.
The door is not locked. She opens it.
There are no windows in this room. It is too dark to see. Isobel takes a breath. She knows that there are things on the floor of this room. She is not sure where they are. She puts one hand out in front of her. She is holding the food she took in her other arm.
She steps into the room.
Her foot hits something. It hurts. She bites her lip. There are crates scattered around. She knows that there are stairs in this room. They go to the rooms that are above the grocery store.
She takes another step. She is going to where the stairs are.
Her feet hit other things. She stumbles. She drops some of the food she took. She cannot see where it dropped. She does not stop to look for it.
She reaches the bottom of the stairs. She puts her hand on the banister. She goes up the stairs.
One of her hands is on the banister beside the stairs. The other is holding the food she took. At the top of the stairs there is a room. It is not really a room. It is more like an attic. She goes to the top of the stairs. There is a door. She opens the door. She is in the room.
There is a window in one of the walls. There is a curtain over it. The curtain is flimsy. A bit of light from the alley comes through it.
Isobel can see a bed. It is against one wall of the room. She can see a sink on one of the other walls. There is a mirror on the wall over it.
She goes to the middle of the room. There is a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. She cannot see it but she knows it is there. She stands under the light bulb. She reaches up. She pulls on the string hanging from it.
The light bulb turns on.
The bed against the wall is a small bed. There is a bare mattress on the bed frame. It is the bed she woke up in this morning. The plain white sheets are gone. There is not supposed to be anyone here. The sheets have been put away.
Isobel sits down on the floor. The floor is made of planks of wood. She puts the food she took on the floor. She eats some of the food. She uses her hands.
When she is done eating she stands up again. She goes over to the sink. She washes her face. There is not a towel hanging by the sink. There had been a towel there this morning. It has been put away too.
She wants to feel at home here.
She scowls. She has to use her dress to dry her face.
She walks to the middle
