During the New Year’s, on the highway back home to our hometown, my younger brother pestered us to stop for a bathroom break.

My mother nudged both my older sister and me.

“The next rest stop is quite far from here. You should head to the washroom; otherwise, you’ll regret it later.

“Be quick; don’t dilly-dally!”

Just as I jumped out, my family’s car pulled away and started driving away. The temperature was close to the freezing point, but my parents left me behind at an unmanned rest stop.

I could only rush over and yell after them, “Dad! Mom!”

I was the middle child, and I was basically invisible to my entire family.

My parents marked down the birthdays of my older sister, Mandy Smith, and my younger brother, Matthew Smith, on their calendars. However, they could never remember my birthday.

Mandy and Matthew always had new dresses and new suits to wear, but my parents always forgot to buy new clothes for me.

Mandy and Matthew always had birthday presents, but my parents never bought presents for me.

When we went back to our hometown for the New Year, my parents once again forgot about me and left me behind in an unmanned rest stop in the freezing weather…

When I got out of the rest stop washroom, I saw Mandy and Matthew enter the car. I was about to follow them when I saw the car start to drive away.

I immediately ran behind the car and yelled, “Dad! Mom! I’m not in the car yet!”

But the car very quickly drove onto the busy highway. It then disappeared from my field of vision.

I looked in the direction of where the car went. My lips trembled as I kept mumbling, “Dad, mom, I’m not in the car yet…”

My voice was very faint, as if broken by the cold wind the moment it reached my lips. It vaguely echoed in the empty rest stop. The next second, what was left of my shock and fear was replaced by a cold, numbing sensation.

I slowly shifted my gaze away and looked at my surroundings.

The huge rest stop was eerily silent.

Under the dim streetlight, the entire sky was white. I did not see a single soul around.

On the nearby highway, the cars were driving past. The car lights blurred into a long strip of light, but not a single car stopped for me. I did not dare to move. It was as if my feet were nailed to the ground. I was still harboring a sliver of hope. Maybe my parents would soon realize that I was not in the car, and they would immediately turn around to look for me.

I grabbed the corner of my clothes and stared at the intersection where the car drove away, as I hoped again and again for the familiar white car to reappear.

It was getting even colder. I could feel the coldness seeping into my bones. I was freezing from the inside out. My toes were already numbed from the cold, and I slowly lost feelings in them. My face was red and painful from the wind. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I did not dare to cry.

I knew that even if I cried, no one would come and comfort me.

I really could not stand the piercingly cold wind, so I turned around and walked back toward the washroom where I would at least be sheltered from the freezing temperature. In the quiet washroom, I could only hear my soft breathing and the wind blowing.

The sadness that I had suppressed on purpose suddenly broke and overwhelmed me like a falling dam. I recalled my birthday last year. My entire family had forgotten about it. My mother only remembered my birthday three days later when she looked at the calendar and quickly made a bowl of pasta with some cheese on top.

“This is to make up for your birthday. Quick, eat it.”

She was watching TV when she said that.

However, for Mandy’s birthday, all of us went to her favorite theme park. On her birthday cake, it was written that she was our pride. Matthew’s birthday was even more extravagant. My parents invited the entire kindergarten class, and he received a lot of presents.

Ever since she was a kid, Mandy was praised for being mature, and Matthew was doted on as a goofball.

What about me?

“Myra is a good kid. She doesn’t make a fuss.”

That was my label. My presence was like a faint design on a wallpaper. I existed, but no one cared about me.

I did not know how long I was in the washroom. I slowly felt the warmth leaving my body. Just when I was about to lose consciousness from the cold, I heard soft footsteps coming from the entrance. My heart skipped a beat, and I immediately perked up, staring intensely at the door.

Was that my mother?

Did she finally realize that I was not in the car and turned around to find me?

The door creaked open.

However, it was an unfamiliar older lady dressed in a puffer jacket who walked in.

The light in my eyes went out. I smiled wryly. I had expected too much.

When the lady saw me, she was obviously stunned.

It was probably because she had not expected to see a young girl alone in a rest stop washroom located in such a remote area.

She sized me up for a bit before asking gently, “Hey, are you here alone? Where are your parents?”

When I heard her asking about my parents, I started to tear up. I suppressed the urge to cry and said in a hoarse voice, “Hello, I… I was forgotten by my parents. Can I borrow your phone to give them a call?”

When she heard that, she looked like she felt pity toward me. She immediately took out her phone from her pocket and said gently, “Quick, call your parents. Don’t catch a cold from such cold weather.”

I took her phone. My fingers were numbed from the cold, so I accidentally pressed the wrong number a few times until I finally managed to type in the right one. I took a deep breath and pressed the dial button.

While I waited and listened to the ringing tone for the call to get through, I was extremely nervous and hopeful.

However, no one answered the call. The hand that was holding the phone started to tremble lightly. The hope that I had in me started to die.

The lady looked at me and comforted me with a soft voice.

“Don’t worry, maybe the signal is bad. Let’s try again.”

I nodded and pressed the call button again. I pressed the phone tightly against my ear. I prayed that I would be able to hear my parents’ voices this time.

It was an excruciatingly long waiting time. My breathing hitched with every beep I heard. At the seventh, the call finally got through. I heard my mother’s blurred voice amid the wind and the car music. “Hello?”

I instantly felt relieved and teared up some more. My grief and fear formed a lump in my throat, and I tried my best to speak softly with my hoarse voice.

“Mom… I didn’t get back in the car. You left me at the rest stop.”

I had just said that when my mother refuted, sounding firm and impatient.

“Impossible! Before we left, I asked if everyone was in the car. Mandy and Matthew both said yes. How could you have been left behind?”

There was a slight pause. I could imagine my mother turning around and looking at the backseats. The few seconds of silence felt colder than the wind. I thought she would be anxious and guilty, but she started blaming me sharply.

“Why didn’t you tell us that you didn’t get into the car? Don’t you know how to yell and stop us? Why did you only call us when we’ve driven so far? You’re causing so much trouble!”

The accusation was an ice-cold needle that burst my bubble of hope.

I bit my lower lip forcefully and forced myself not to cry. My voice was shaking uncontrollably.

“I did… I was running behind and yelling after you. But you didn’t hear me, and the car just left.”

My mother was speechless when she heard my explanation. However, the silence was temporary. She then found another reason to scold me.

“It’s because you acted too slow! I asked you to be quick, but you’re always dilly-dallying! We’ve already passed the toll station, and we can’t simply turn around on the highway. How are we going to turn around to fetch you?”

At the same time, I heard Mandy’s smug voice.

“Who can she blame for being this slow? I was rushing her at the time, but she was still taking her own sweet time. Serves her right.”

I grabbed the phone tightly until my knuckles turned white. I felt as angry as I felt hurt.

She had cut the queue before me, so I had had no choice but to queue again to enter the washroom, but she was blaming me?

Immediately after, I heard Matthew’s childish yet cruel voice. He was spoiled rotten.

“Dad, Mom, I don’t want to turn around! I want to go back to Grandma’s house and have a feast!”

Just when I was about to cry, I heard my dad’s low voice. He sounded distant, and he started to make arrangements as though it were not a big deal to him.

“Alright, stop arguing. Uncle Darren is also driving back to our hometown today. He’s driving on the same road as us. Just wait at the rest station and don’t move. When he arrives there, you can hitch a ride back to our hometown.”

“But Dad, I don’t remember Uncle Darren’s car. How do I…”

They hung up on me before I could finish talking.

I held the lady’s phone and just stood in a daze. Tears began to stream down my cheeks and drop onto the screen.

The lady looked at me before patting my shoulder to comfort me. She sighed, “Don’t be sad. How about you follow me home and call your parents to come fetch you at my place? I’ll get off the next exit, so I won’t be heading the same direction as you. But I’ll be able to take care of you for this short journey.”

I recalled my parents’ impatient voices and rejected the lady’s kindness.

“It’s alright, thank you. My parents said that my uncle will fetch me very soon. I’ll wait for him here.”

My parents did not want to turn around to pick me up due to the New Year’s traffic.

I was not close to Uncle Darren, so I bet he would not be happy to do a detour to pick me up. The lady wanted to say something else, but her phone started ringing. Her travel companions must be rushing her.

She looked at me in concern and took out a few pieces of chocolate from her bag and pressed them in my palm. Then, she took off her beige scarf and wrapped it around my shoulders.

“Have this scarf; you’ll feel warmer this way. Eat some chocolate so you won’t get hungry. If no one fetches you after a while, ask another stranger to lend their phones to you. Be safe.”

I forced myself to nod and sobbed, “Thank you.”

She rushed out of the washroom and left me alone at the empty rest stop.

The cold wind seeped through the cracks in the door, but the scarf provided me with some warmth. My stomach rumbled from hunger, so I took out a piece of chocolate and ate it.

I did not dare to eat them all at once. I carefully put the rest of the chocolate back into my pocket. If I needed to wait for a long time, I had to leave some for later. I wrapped the scarf tighter around my body and up against my neck.

I was wearing a hand-me-down sweater from Mandy. The collar of the sweater was loose. Some threads were falling out. Mandy did not want this sweater anymore after wearing it for a year. My mother said the sweater was still wearable, so she passed it to me.

Mandy was wearing a new pink puffer jacket this year. It came with a fur-rimmed hoodie, and she looked like a proud princess in it. Matthew was also wearing a new puffer jacket that was bright blue. When he ran in it, he looked like a waddling penguin.

As for me, I was stuck wearing Mandy’s hand-me-down, and I looked like Cinderella.

I was afraid that Uncle Darren would miss me when he drove, so I clenched my teeth and walked out of the washroom and stood against the cold wind.

The streetlight became dimmer, and the sky turned dark grey. Snow started falling on my hair and shoulders, and it immediately melted.

I stared at the cars and kept stomping my feet to prevent them from freezing. I warmed my hands with the scarf whenever I felt them going numb from the cold. I kept praying for Uncle Darren to arrive soon.

The cars kept passing by, blinding me with their lights. However, none of them stopped at the rest stop.

The snow was getting heavier, and it formed a layer of snow on my scarf, so I wrapped it a little tighter around me. The sweetness from the chocolate had faded, and I was left anxious and cold. I did not know how much longer I had to wait, and I was unsure if Uncle Darren would really remember to fetch me.

I felt as though the cold wind was going to freeze me to death in this empty rest stop.

Time felt extra long. I was left to freeze with this growing hunger. I stood under a streetlight and was constantly losing sensation in my limbs. The cold pierced through my bones.

I was not even shaking anymore; it was like my body had lost the ability to shiver. A strange, uncomfortable pain began to spread within me. I felt as though something was pressing against my head. It felt heavy and painful, and I could not even look up.

My heart started to speed up. It was thudding against my chest like thunder. I began to lose my breath.