She does not know that her knuckles have turned white. She does not know what to do.
The woman inside the station puts her knitting down. She gets out of the booth she sits in. She has her purse in her hands.
The woman comes out onto the platform.
She sees Isobel. Isobel is sitting on the bench. She does not say anything to Isobel. She walks to the end of the platform.
She reaches into her purse. She takes out a pack of cigarettes. She takes out a cigarette. She puts it to her mouth. She takes a book of matches out of her purse. She lights her cigarette with a match.
She holds the cigarette in her hand and she blows smoke out of her mouth. She looks at Isobel sitting on the bench. Isobel can feel her looking at her.
The woman narrows her eyes.
She finishes smoking her cigarette. She takes a stick of gum out of her purse. She puts it into her mouth.
She goes back inside the station. She walks slowly. She is very fat. Inside the station a radio comes on. There is music playing on the radio. Isobel hears it from where she is sitting on the platform.
Isobel stands up. She stands by the bench for a moment. She does not move. She stands still. It is like she is deciding what she is going to do.
She goes inside the station.
There is a snack machine inside the station. She goes to the snack machine. The woman is here. She is sitting in her booth. She is knitting.
Isobel looks at the woman sitting in the booth as she goes to the snack machine.
Isobel takes some coins out of her pocket. She counts them in her hand. She counts them and then she looks at the snack machine.
The woman behind the pane of glass stops knitting. She looks at Isobel.
Isobel counts the coins in her hand again. She looks at the snack machine again. She makes a decision. She puts some of the coins into it. She presses a button on the front of the machine.
Gears turn inside the machine. It gives her a snack. Isobel looks at the woman behind the pane of glass. The woman is looking at her.
Isobel scowls. She wants to scowl at the woman but she does not. She looks at the ground. She goes back onto the platform.
There is the bench on the platform. She goes to the bench and she sits down on the bench. She eats her snack. While she is eating her snack a train comes. It stops beside the other platform. Isobel stops eating her snack. She looks at the train.
Things happen on the other platform. She cannot see what happens on the other platform. The train is between her and the other platform.
She looks at the train until it leaves.
When the train leaves there is no one left on the 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