Where You Are

Moncton

Birgitta

'I don't like it,' Jesse was telling me over the phone.

We'd been talking since I got off work twenty minutes ago, I was in my car, almost home, but it wasn't unusual for me to stay in my car for hours talking to him, usually until he fell asleep on the phone. I absolutely loved how much he hated hanging up when we were talking. And the damn it! text I got the following morning whenever he woke up always made me laugh.

The first winter storm of the season was headed towards the east coast of Canada, which wasn't unusual even though it was only early November, but it was expected to be destructive and we were definitely going to lose power.

I'd been working the last few days, but had been trying to prepare as best as I could in between shifts. I had all my external power banks charged, a case of drinking water, boxes of energy bars and dry food, plus a couple hundred dollars in cash. I was planning on filling up my car with gas tomorrow on my way home from work so I wouldn't have to venture out for anything. I would be off after that and hopefully would weather the storm alright on my own in my apartment.

'We get them all the time,' I assured him.

'You get unbelievable weather over there,' he sighed. 'I don't like it. What if something happens?'

'Like what?' I asked, genuinely curious to what he thought was going to happen.

'Like your car slides off the road when you're on your way home from work tomorrow and there isn't anyone around to help,' he answered.

'It's not supposed to start until the next day,' I countered.

'Could you fly out here? I'll be flying back to London on Wednesday,' he said.

He was presently in Toronto. It was a temping offer.

'No!' I laughed. 'And I seriously doubt you'll make it back to Toronto, we'll be in the middle of a blizzard by then!'

He sighed.

'What if you run out of food?' He countered.

'I have enough food to last me two weeks, at least,' I told him. 'And I seriously doubt it'll be that long without power.'

'What if your mobile runs out of battery and I can't speak with you?' He tried again.

My heart melted a bit. I knew he was concerned for my safety, which was honestly a hard concept for me. No one had ever been particularly concerned about me when a blizzard was in the forecast. I was tough and knew how to handle extreme weather. I would be alright.

But it was nice having someone worry over me, too.

'I have, like, six battery packs,' I told him. 'That should get me through until the power's back.'

'Bugger, Rob's ringing me again,' he grumbled.

That was the third time in the last ten minutes. I heard Jesse sigh heavily into the phone.

'Can I call you right back?' He asked. 'It might actually be an emergency, he's never called me three times in a row before.'

'Yeah, definitely,' I told him. 'I'm almost home anyway.'

'Brilliant, I'll be five minutes, tops.'

The line went dead. I was a bit taken aback for a second, Jesse never hung up on me. He usually complained that he couldn't do it and I had to and we usually ended up arguing about it for another ten minutes before actually ending the call. He must really be worried about Rob. I didn't know enough about him to know if this behaviour was unusual or not.