7:15 a.m. The bus was late again, and Lily\u2019s toes were tingling. She hadn\u2019t counted on winter being this cold when she decided to move here after college. The honeymoon period of living independently of all of her family and friends was over. She felt as if the loneliness would suffocate her.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, Lily!\u201d It was John, a near 50-year-old from the apartment complex. “Little brisk, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n
Lily eyed him through the slit between her wool hat and the scarf covering her mouth. He had on a hoody and shorts. \u201cYa think?\u201d She was not in the mood. John was nice and everything, but\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cSoutherner.\u201d He laughed at her ineptness to handle the cold.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Finally the bus came. John greeted the driver and then proceeded to walk down the aisle. \u201cHello, how ya doing? How\u2019s your mom feeling? Tell her hello for me.\u201d The guy didn\u2019t know the meaning of the word \u201cstranger.\u201d She slid into the front-most seat and tried to shake the blurriness the cold had left in her eyes. John eventually made his way back and sat in the seat across from her. \u201cI can\u2019t wait for spring. How \u2018bout you?\u201d<\/p>\n
She mumbled some kind of answer, but John didn\u2019t even notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, aren\u2019t you from Texas?\u201d he asked her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, why?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, there\u2019s this lady who gets on at the Junction Street stop. She mentioned that she is from Spotfield\u2014or Spotfort\u2014something like that, in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lily couldn\u2019t believe what she was hearing. \u201cYou mean, Spofford?\u201d Spofford was only about 10 miles from her hometown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. Maybe. She said it\u2019s some little whistlestop\u2014whatever that is\u2014town in southwesternish Texas. Look, there she is.\u201d He was pointing to a woman waiting as the bus slowed down.<\/p>\n
As she stepped on board, Lily looked her over. She was middle aged with a pudgy waistline and bright eyes. Her face was warm, but Lily\u2019s heart fell when she didn\u2019t recognize her. She so wanted to see a familiar face. Sometimes in a crowd she would look for characteristics in people who reminded her of someone\u2014anyone\u2014back home.<\/p>\n
John didn\u2019t hesitate to follow the lady to the back of the bus. Lily focused on her own boots where her toes were starting to warm up. Tears threatened. A few seconds later, she felt John sit down beside her. \u201cHey, Lily. This is Carolyn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lily glanced over at the woman who was now sitting in the seat across the aisle. \u201cHi, Carolyn.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLily moved here from Texas a few weeks ago,\u201d John helped the conversation along. \u201cWhat town did you say you are from?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBracketville.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, out of Carolyn\u2019s mouth came the most soothing sound Lily had heard in a long, long time. \u201cWell, I\u2019ll be. I haven\u2019t met anyone in all the years I\u2019ve lived here who even knew where those two towns were,\u201d she drawled in the familiar southern Texas tongue. She smiled at Lily, and Lily finally felt some kind of connection here in the city. Her eyes had tears in them now\u2014no longer from the cold but from relief. Meeting Carolyn was a soothing balm for the homesickness that was threatening to break her heart. It was the beginning of her realization that you can have your own community and \u201csmall towness,\u201d even in a metropolis. God had answered the cry of her lonely heart and gave her a boost of faith just when she thought she was truly all alone. She had her own Aunt Bee on a Mayberry bus.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.\u201d (John 14:18, NAS)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory.\u201d (Philippians 4:19, NAS)<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a92011 Tammy Maseberg All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 7:15 a.m. The bus was late again, and Lily\u2019s toes were tingling. She hadn\u2019t counted on winter being this cold when she decided to move here after college. The honeymoon period of living independently of all of her family and friends was over. She felt as if the loneliness would suffocate her. \u201cHey, Lily!\u201d It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fictional-stories","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}