In the history of my life in Canada, maybe only one time I needed to use a public phone. Somehow my phone ran out of battery and to my luck, when I tried to find good in humanity, I was reminded there is not such thing as sympathy in moments of need.

I remember I approached this young “lady” who was just flickering through her apps in her cell phone and asked her if I could pay her $5 to use her phone to make a quick call. There was no response from her, not a glance, not a move, nothing said – perhaps she assumed I was a crazy person who steals cellphones at public places and sells them in the black market? But I didn’t think someone would just ignore someone, I thought maybe she didn’t hear me so I asked her again.

“Excuse me…”

“NO!”, was her immediate barking response.

Bitch, she did hear me the first time. I didn’t even finish my sentence and she was already in a get-the-fuck-out mode.

While I understand that someone could doubt the stranger’s intentions, I think such called “manners” should be in use. A simple “sorry, I can’t let you use my phone”, or even lie about it “I gotta go back to work, I can’t lend it to you, sorry” or even a simple and without yelling “no” would have got the same results without actually making her sound like a total bitch. Yelling was not necessary.

I was mad at her unnecessary nasty reaction that I wanted to pull her hair and run fast, but I still needed to make that phone call and I knew I would stop eventually and be caught. So I only stuck my tongue at her and moved on – that’ll teach her. I later went to brake out my $5 and found a public phone.

This memory has been buried for over a year now until recently, when Milla started paying close attention to the public phones in the city. Somehow the memory and the feelings came to the surface, making me to pour my heart out.