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.

My stomach started hurting very badly.

Maybe I was too hungry. I took out the piece of chocolate that I had left with my trembling hand. I did not care about saving it for later; I simply stuffed it right into my mouth. The sweetness helped a little with my palpitations, but I felt my head getting heavier.

My body was freezing, and I felt even colder than when I was waiting in the wind. It was the type of cold that seeped into my bones. I held onto the scarf even tighter, but it was as if its warmth had disappeared. I could no longer feel it. Just when I was about to lose my balance, a black car drove toward me and slowly stopped at the rest stop.

I stared at it like it was my last hope and forced myself to walk over. However, the car windows rolled down to reveal a man whom I did not know.

“Hello… Can you lend me your phone? I… I don’t feel well…”

My voice was so soft that I could no longer hear it myself.

The man was stunned. Very soon, he took out his phone and passed it to me.

“Are you alright? You look very sick.”

I did not have time to explain. I dialed my father’s number with frozen fingers.

He answered very quickly this time.

“Dad…”

I cried with a trembling voice.

“When… When will Uncle Darren arrive? I don’t feel good… I feel dizzy, and my heart is beating too fast… Am I sick?”

My father sounded impatient.

“What is it this time? Didn’t I ask you to wait? Your uncle has already departed, but the traffic is bad. He will be arriving soon! Why are you so impatient? You’re the one who acted slowly and didn’t get into the car. Now you have to own up to it.”

“No… Dad, I really do feel unwell…”

My explanation did not change anything.

“Enough, stop causing trouble. Just wait there! Why are you making such a big fuss over the New Year?”

He hung up on me again. The beeping tone pierced my ear. I opened my mouth again. I wanted to say that I could no longer hold on, but before I could say that, my father had ended the call. I held onto the phone and stood in a daze, almost forgetting to return the phone to the man.

He ended up reaching for it and started comforting me softly.

“Don’t worry, your family is going to arrive soon. How about you get into my car to warm yourself up?”

I shook my head. I was afraid that Uncle Darren would miss me, so I forced myself to thank him and moved back to where I was.

After a long while, I was no longer shivering. My heart rate had also slowed down.

However, I did not feel any better. I felt as though my limbs did not belong to me. They were frozen and numb. I wanted to stomp to feel a bit warmer, but it was hard for me to even lift my legs. It was as if my movements were in slow motion.

The sky had gone completely dark.

I stared at the intersection in a daze with a blurred vision. I felt myself starting to lose myself, so I clenched my teeth and forced myself to walk back to the building.

I leaned against the wall and could barely breathe. It was as if someone were choking me and pressing a huge stone against my chest. I gasped and I tried to breathe in more air. But my breath was short, so I did not get enough oxygen.

The world began to evade my sight, and the streetlight started burning my eyes. My knees suddenly bent, and I fell onto the floor. I no longer had the strength to hold myself up, so I curled up against the cold ground. The scarf came apart, but I did not have the energy to wrap it around me again.

I was so tired…

I could no longer open my eyes, and I felt my consciousness slowly fade away. In a daze, I thought I saw my parents running toward me with anxious expressions. Before I completely shut my eyes, I thought to myself.

‘Ah, you’re finally here to pick me up…’