It continues with an energetic "Pat Foley". The operator has to ask her if she will accept the collect call three times because I start crying louder the moment she answers so she can't hear the request.
“Allyson. Allyson. What's happening? Are you hurt?" she asks over the line.
I'm too scared, too numb to be hurt. That will come later.
“No,” I say in the smallest of voices. "I need help."
Mrs. Foley manages to get the basics out of me. That I went to Paris with a boy I met on the train. That I'm stuck here, lost, with no money, no idea where I am.
Please, I beg. "I just want to go home."
Let's work on getting you back to England, okay? he says calmly. "Do you have a ticket?"
Willem bought me a round trip, I think. I go through my bag and take out my passport. The bill is still neat
