Out of Time

by Kelly Gibbons

Every day the bank is open she arrives promptly at nine carrying a blue suitcase. She stands like a statue at the window watching people pass, searching for someone in the crowd. Her clothes are old, from a different era, but she looks as if she's going someplace special. She's known as Rosie because she wears a worn silk rose behind her ear, but other details have faded over the years. Rumors of a planned elopement gone sour and a subsequent nervous breakdown are the accepted causes of her daily journey to the bank.

She is a fixture at the bank. Through the years managers have instructed new employees to leave her alone, explained that she's just a harmless old woman waiting for someone who will never arrive. Rosie is a legend. Occasionally teenagers pass by the window to tease her, but she is usually ignored because people have become so accustomed to her. The few who offer help always receive the same polite response, "Oh, no thank you, I'm fine. I'm waiting for someone. He'll be here soon." So, for reasons known only to her, she arrives on schedule every day to wait for a mystery man, who for more than forty years has failed to appear.

But life was not always this way for Rosie.

She woke up early that day, too excited to sleep because today was the day her dreams were coming true. Today, she would marry Joe. She dressed quickly in her best dress, the one she saved for special occasions--it was brand new because she didn't go anywhere special before she met Joe--and danced around the house preparing for the day. She laughed out loud as she closed her blue suitcase. For the past few years, since her mother passed away, she had been so lonely. Her mother had been ill for a long time, and Rose had spent most of her life as a caretaker instead of making friends or having fun. She had never had a date or a real friend. Her mother was all she had ever had, and her death had left Rose's life empty. The loneliness was unbearable. Meeting Joe changed that.

They had met outside the library where Rose worked part-time. She had just left for the day and was carrying a large stack of books. As she walked down the sidewalk, a group of rowdy boys ran by and startled her, causing her to drop the books. The boys continued past her without offering to help. Things like that always happened to Rose. She felt like she was invisible to the world. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she knelt to gather the books. She was quite surprised to notice that someone else was kneeling beside her.

"Let me help you with those. Boy, you sure do read a lot," said the handsome stranger as he helped her pick up the books. "Can I carry these into the library for you?"

"Uh, uh...no.uh, I'm going home," Rose whispered.

"Well, do you live far? Those books are heavy, can I help you with them?"

Rose couldn't answer. She just stared at the man and nodded her head yes, and began walking toward her house with him beside her. He talked and joked and laughed the entire way. He had such an easy way about him and he didn't seem to mind that she could barely utter a word. He talked enough for both of them.

She found out a lot about him that day. His name was Joe and he had just come back from the war in Germany. He worked in the office building next to the library and she was shocked to find that he had been secretly admiring her for weeks. He told her that those boys knocking into her was fate, that it gave him a way to meet her. Every day after that, Joe was waiting at the library when it was time for Rose to go home, and their friendship quickly turned to love.

Rose thought of this as she finished packing. She still could not believe that today she would become Joe's wife. She giggled as she shut the door knowing this was the last day she would live in this house alone. Rose could scarcely contain her eagerness as she made her way to the bank to meet Joe. It was a glorious summer day, and everything looked spectacular on her short walk. She was amazed by the beauty of her surroundings. How had she not noticed it before?

As she strolled gaily along, she spontaneously picked a red rose. Her smile grew larger as she remembered what Joe had said the first time he heard her name, "Rose, what a beautiful name. It is perfect, but you are far more beautiful than any flower I have ever seen." She had blushed, because it was the first time anyone had called her beautiful. Impulsively, she tucked the rose behind her ear--it was much prettier than the silk one she had planned to wear--and picked up her pace. She sang as she hurried along the busy avenue on the way to her destiny, "here comes the bride, all dressed in white." Nothing could ruin this day.

She was a block from the bank when she heard sirens. A crowd had gathered on the sidewalk in front of the bank. She slowly pushed her way through the crowd, hearing people's laments, "poor guy, he never knew what hit him."

"Someone was killed!"

"What a shame, he was a nice looking man."

"He sure must have been in a hurry. How did he not see that bus?"

Rose wanted to get into the bank, but the large crowd made it impossible. Curiosity made her push her way closer to the front of the group to find out why she was delayed. She was not prepared for what she saw. It was Joe. Her anguished scream muted everything else as she collapsed in the street beside him.

The bank was the first place she went when she was released from the hospital. She spoke to the manager and explained she was there to meet her fiancé. She asked if it would be all right to wait, and was assured that it would not be a problem. The manager directed her to a quiet corner by the window, and she stood there all day holding her blue suitcase. Her fiancé never came. At closing time she left, but returned the following morning. It was the start of her life-long routine.

Forty years have passed, but for Rose life has stood still, frozen in the moment before she heard the siren so long ago, and every day she waits patiently for a dream that will never come true.