The Stranger with No Battery

At midnight, the departure board at the airport shows one word, over and over: "Delayed". Marlo has been here since nine, and he has already read every sign in the building. His own flight leaves at five, so he has nowhere to go until then.

Across from him, a young woman is sitting with a small blue backpack. She keeps pressing the button on her phone, but the screen stays black. She stands up, walks to a closed information desk, and comes back looking worried.

Marlo watches her for a while. He knows how it feels to be alone in an airport at night. He tells himself that it isn't his business. Then she puts her head in her hands, and he stops arguing with himself.

"Excuse me," he says. "I have a power bank, if that helps."

She looks up, surprised. "Thank you. My phone died on the plane. My aunt is meeting me here, but I don't know her number by heart. Everything is on the phone."

"That's the trouble with phones," Marlo says. He plugs her phone into the power bank. "It needs a few minutes before it turns on. Do you know her email address? You could write to her from mine."

She does, and she types a short message on his phone. Flight late, phone dead, waiting near gate twelve. Nothing comes back. It is nearly one o'clock, and her aunt might be asleep.

"She'll see it when she wakes up," the young woman says. She doesn't sound sure.

"Then we'll wait," Marlo says.

So they wait. She tells him this is her first trip alone. She is going to study in a new city. He tells her about his daughter, who is the same age and who also hates airports. They share a bag of nuts. Twice, the board changes, and twice it says the same word again.

At ten to two, her phone finally comes back to life, and it shows eleven missed calls. At two o'clock, a woman in a long coat comes running through the hall, calling out a name. The young woman jumps up, and the two of them hold each other for a long time.

"Thank you," the aunt says to Marlo. "I was so afraid."

The young woman gives him back the power bank. "It's empty," she says, laughing.

Marlo sits down again and looks at the board. Then he checks his own phone, which has five percent left, and goes to find a plug.