Chance on You (Pub 4)

2 - Sheltered

Isla Gibson watched the car drive away, before walking down the street. She entered the paint chipped door into the shelter. For the past six days, she only had a bed and a shower.

It had been seven days since she walked out of the only home she had known for the past ten years and boarded a train north. The only reason she chose north was because it was the next one scheduled to leave. She had to put enough distance between her and Philadelphia so she wouldn't be tempted to go back. What she hadn't expected was just how sheltered she had been. The twenty-nine-year-old hadn't planned what to do when she stepped off the train with her meager savings. Unsure about her new job, she hoped to make enough money to find a place to live.

She woke after only a few hours of sleep and dressed in a different sweater and skirt. Maybe she could wash her clothes while she worked. She felt butterflies as she stepped into the wintry morning air. Once she turned the corner, she saw the lights of the diner. It never closed, and she had stayed in it her first night sipping coffee. At five am, two police officers came in for breakfast.

The female left her partner and sat down next to Isla. "Do you have a place to go?"

Isla looked into her empty cup. Her stomach felt jumpy after all the acidic coffee.

The woman nodded. "There's a shelter nearby. I'll walk you over. They'll let you have a shower."

Isla took out her purse to pay for her toast and coffee, but the officer said, "Let me. I do this job to help people." They walked out into the dawn together. "You look nothing like I expected. You look too healthy to be addicted and too old to be a runaway."

Isla didn't respond. She was a runaway but would never touch drugs, not with the stories she had heard. As they stepped inside the shelter, the woman at the desk greeted the officer.

"I have a friend who might like some info and a shower. She drank coffee all night."

Isla suspected she wasn't the first all-night diner patron. A week later, she stood in front of the same diner waiting for strangers to pick her up. Twice she had accepted the charity of others. Was the job charity? She smiled thinking of the story of the mud and the soap.

Isla took a deep breath as the car pulled up. Riley waved to her from the backseat. She reluctantly slipped into the front passenger seat.

Leo said, "I'll catch a later train after I show you around."

She nodded and couldn't find words. The man was dressed in a suit. She forced a breath. "I... um... I'm new to the area. I don't know my way around."

She had a habit of meeting kind people or was she naïve to think people were kind. When she asked the woman next to her on the train where to find an open restaurant late at night, she offered to drop her at the diner.

"No worries. We'll drive by the train station." She looked out at the street hoping to remember. "Train station, Riley you know the way, right?"

The girl said, "Yah. I think so."

Isla didn't want to rely on the child.

He said, "The store, so you can shop. I started a list, but you can plan meals. We eat anything, right, guys?"

Cody said, "Yup." Riley made a face.

"Okay. Their school is here. We're a little early. You can drop them at the curb, but you need to go in and pick them up at three. I'll call the school so you have permission."

They waited five minutes in the car. Once the children jumped out, she felt uncomfortable alone with him.

"The house is around the corner. You could walk, but we can't count on the weather."