With some time to kill before the expected 8:41 arrival of the 59U, Jess and Steph decided to take a quick stroll around the interior of Target, to dry off and warm up. Racks of bathing suits and aisles of lingerie added a nice touch of both irony and unreality to the atmosphere. The place was almost empty, and the girls strode briskly and spoke loudly, still energized by their recent escape from the snow.
Near the end of their circuit, both girls halted in their tracks when Jess suddenly unleashed a joyful cry: "Gummies!"
They stood before an end shelf stocked with all manner of gummy snacks. Their eyes in their upturned faces reflected rows of boxes decorated with countless colors and designs. They stood a moment in awe.
Then Steph broke the moment by turning irreverently away and dancing forward impatiently. "We gotta go."
"One minute!" protested Jess, and carefully selected a box with Disney fairies on it.
"You know those are in entropy," said Steph, inscrutably.
"This kind isn't," Jess replied, apparently knowing what she was talking about.
The girls proceeded to the registers, where Jess purchased her box of gummies, and then went out to the main entrance to wait for their ride back to campus. Waiting along with them were a tall dark-skinned twenty-something couple with a few small bags, and a Hispanic couple with a large cart full of appliances and a small adorable daughter.
While they waited, Jess opened her prize and handed Steph a tiny white packet. Steph ripped it open, extracted its squishy, brightly colored contents and popped a purple fairy into her mouth.
"Okay, so this was a good idea," she admitted, chewing.
"See?" said Jess, tearing into her own packet.
A bus went by the doors, and the girls straightened, but then Jess shook her head. Wrong one.
More time passed. Impatient, Steph ventured outside, still under the shelter of Target's roof, and peered into the white haze. She waited, watching, until another bus pulled into the lot. Steph squinted at it, trying to make out its moniker. "59 -" She read, and beckoned excitedly to Jess, who came forward to look too.
"A," said Jess. "It's the 59A."
"But - !"
"A," repeated Jess.
Steph sighed.
Discouraged, they went back inside and leaned against the wall to wait. To see better, they stood close to the exit doors and stared through the glass, or more likely the plastic, with the unfortunate result that any time either of them turned her head or shifted her stance the automatic doors swung open and let in a blast of cold air, which would send them scurrying backward a few inches, as if that made a difference.
People still came and went, but only in a trickle, and all with their own cars. The exception, was two other girls, obviously students, who also came to stand in the entrance.
"Are you waiting for the 59U?" asked one.
Jess replied that they were, and all four of them briefly made small talk. The other girls went to a place by the dubious name of Pitt, and not Carnegie Mellon, but it was the same bus either way: the magical and currently missing 59U.
More time passed. Jess was starving. Steph was getting a headache. They were ready to get back to the dorms.
They were just debating whether the addition of more sugar (via gummy fairies) would help or further irritate Steph's head when the police officer walked in and said,
"Sorry, everybody, but I just got a call from Port Authority, and they're only doing main routes because of the snow. Anyone waiting for a bus is going to have to walk over to Eighth."
Jess and Steph stared. Eighth was all the way back in the other direction, past Loews, where they had come from.
"Seriously?" said Steph.
"Is Target still open?" asked Jess.
"Uh... I guess technically," replied Steph, nonplussed.
"Good," said Jess, "I'm going to buy a hat."
But just then the police man returned. "Sorry, folks, I guess they decided the snow was too dangerous. They shut down all buses. Port Authority is closed."
[dun dun DUN... To Be Continued]
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