Chapter 15

“Anna?”

Anna was sitting on a bench outside her new workplace, happily munching on a carrot stick and scrolling through her phone. She had plugged her ears in again, so she was practically deaf to the noises of the outside world.

“Anna.”

The song ended, and while she was reaching into the ziplock bag she’d recently purchased for another stick of carrots, she became faintly aware of the presence of another person standing next to the bench.

“Anna!?”

After securing the stick and placing it in her mouth, she started to select a new song to play, then thought better of it and looked up from her phone screen.

It was Ethel.

“Hi, Ethel,” she waved and removed one earbud from her ear. “Fancy meeting you in a place like this.”

She scooted over to make room for her to sit, and Ethel gratefully plopped down beside her.

“Hi. How are you? I work as a teaching assistant in the high school not far from here,” she said by way of explanation. “I