June Use Your Words - The Stranger

Welcome again to another Use Your Words. In this blog challenge fourteen brave bloggers have swapped words with eachother. We all need to write something based on what words we have been given. The hitch is none of us knew who got our words, or what direction they will take them in.  Below is a list of all the bloggers participating in the challenge this month.  Be sure to visit them all and share the love around.

http://www.BakingInATornado.com          Baking In A Tornado

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/     Spatulas on Parade

http://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com     The Bergham’s Life Chronicles

http://themomisodes.com                        The Momisodes

http://stacysewsandschools.blogspot.com/ Stacy Sews and Schools

http://sparklyjenn.blogspot.com/               Sparkly Poetic Weirdo

http://eileensperpetuallybusy.blogspot.com Eileen’s Perpetually Busy

http://batteredhope.blogspot.com              Battered Hope

http://www.southernbellecharm.com          Southern Belle Charm

http://www.someoneelsesgenius.com         Someone Else’s Genius

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch             Confessions of a part-time working mom

http://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com          Climaxed

http://dinoheromommy.com/                     Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

This month my words are:

strange ~ the world was different ~ passengers ~ flaw ~ she blinked

And they were submitted by the amazing Robin at Someone Else's Genius 

The train was running late. She wasn't upset about this because she was also running late. The delay caused by the train gave her a chance to catch her breath. She always seemed to be running late these days, her once polished life having given way to chaos. Life wasn't meant to be this way she thought for the millionth time.  

She was interrupted from her thoughts by the arrival of the train. She shuffled through the doors and into the aisles with the rest of the passengers. Slowly she made her way through the carriage until she found an empty seat. Settling down in her chair she prepared for the two hour long journey. Leaning back in her chair she allowed her thoughts to wander again, back to that fateful day two weeks ago that had flipped her world upside down. 

It had started as a normal day, she'd gotten up early, done her daily yoga routine then settled into her arm chair to read the paper. She loved her morning routine, and got pretty cranky if she couldn't do it exactly the same way each morning. Little did she know that at that moment, her mornings would never be the same again. She flipped quickly past all the doom and gloom in the front pages and turned straight to the personals column. She loved reading the lost connection section every day, seeing the desperate and hopeful turning to the local rag in the hopes of finding the answer to their what ifs. As she read through the ads however, one connection in particular caught her eye.

"To the brunette beauty sitting in her armchair reading this right now. You've just finished your yoga, and you're now drinking an herbal tea out of your green mug. I have had the privilege of watching you for two weeks perform your daily routine, and you are perfection. Your only flaw is that you do not know I exist, and now I must return to the city without ever having had the courage to learn your name. If you want to help me rectify this, come to the city on the 24th of this month. I'll be at the city station waiting for you on platform 4. You will know it is me because I will be holding a mug identical to the one you hold in your hand right now. Please help me fix the worst mistake of my life, and let me get to know you."

She blinked and stared down at the green mug she was indeed holding in her hand. Had someone really been watching her all this time? She was repulsed and curious at the same time. Her mind raced with questions. Could the ad really be about her? Was there really someone out there who wanted to meet her? Was she going to head to the city to find out? Quickly she looked at the top of the page to check the date. It was the 10th. She had fourteen days to decide whether or not to do something impulsive and crazy, or pretend she had never read the ad at all, and go back to life as usual. Unfortunately for her it was too late for that, she looked around her tiny apartment, and already could see that now, the world was different, and possibly would never be the same ever again. 

The next two weeks dragged by. She changed her mind a million times, back and forth between the two choices until she was dizzy with indecision. In the end her curiosity won out, and she bought a train ticket two days before the 24th, during a moment of bravery. Now she was sitting on the train, heading to the city and regretting her rashness. What if he was ugly, or boring, or worse, a murderer? What if he wasn't really talking to her, what if there was another woman in her town who did yoga then drank herbal tea every morning? All these thoughts flew through her mind over the two hour trip into the city. She was almost relieved when the train arrived at its final destination, until she remembered why she was actually there, and the terror kicked in. She milled out of the train behind everyone else and stood still. She began to scan the people rushing to their next destination, searching for a man holding a green mug. 

Then suddenly like something out of a movie, the crowds parted, and standing in the middle of platform 4 was a tall gentleman holding a green mug. He had kind eyes and a nervous smile on his face, as he scanned the crowd looking for his yoga loving mystery woman. Their eyes met, and the world stopped for a second. She was relieved to find, the strange person who had been watching her in secret certainly wasn't ugly. "As for the boring or the murderer," she thought, "there's only one way to find out."