Most mornings, I take the scenic route to work. The road takes me along a bluff above the Fraser River. It's a trucking route, so most of my fellow travellers drive big rigs or weathered pickups. I like driving my little car along this road. It's peaceful. It's pretty. It's comforting.
Along the way, I pass a magnetic sign at an empty lot. The restaurant that once operated there has long since been demolished. But the sign remains, and someone has put it to good use.
This month, the sign says "Josie". There is a little red heart at the end of her name. In months prior, a lover's request pleaded "Meet me halfway, Josie". The magnets came loose over time, and the message disintegrated into "Meet me" before the words fell away entirely.
At the time, I wondered if Josie put much thought into that message. Did she want her love back? Did she think about him every morning? Was it really, truly over, now that the letters had all fallen away?
So when this latest message appeared, I was inspired. I smiled to myself and at the little heart next to her name.
Who was this lover of Josie's? What possessed him to publicly profess his love and ask for her back? Why did he choose a road sign in an empty lot, where truckers and delivery drivers and construction workers pass by? Probably not a lot of ladies have seen the sign, and very few of them are named Josie.
But he must have known her habits and that he'd catch her eye like he did when they started dating. I began to wonder... hey Josie... what did you say? I'm imagining a happy ending, and hoping all is right in their world.
The truth is, I don't know her story. Both Josie and her lover remain safely anonymous, even though she's been publicly loved from the side of a dirt-covered road.
Wherever she is, whatever her story, it must be nice to be loved like Josie. I'm waiting for the next update on my drive in.... hopefully a good one from Josie and her love.
