One particular winter night in 1994, John and I climbed aboard the train and traveled the three-mile stretch before jumping off the train just before it entered the Ford warehouse. The warehouse sat among a busy street, but with little else except industrial buildings nearby. The list of places for John and I to go while waiting for the train to make its return trip was short. This night, we decided to walk to the nearby gas station and came across a girl standing in the phone booth talking to her friend (remember, it was 1994). She seemed nervous as we approached, opened the door and asked if we needed to use the phone. John and I politely declined. Then the girl struck up a conversation. Somehow we got on the topic that we were train hopping and killing time until the train headed back to our town. Then she immediately passed the phone over to us. Her friend on the phone begged us not to train hop, but we assured her that we were pros at this and there was nothing to worry about. "Fine," she said, "But promise me that you'll call me when you guys get home." John and I looked at each other, agreed to check-in and got her phone number. About an hour later, we placed the phone call and relayed that we safely made it home. From there, the three of us formed a friendship via the telephone and spent many nights on three-way phone calls with them.
Neither John nor I ever knew what she looked like and the same held true for her -- we only knew each other from our voices. She was a couple years younger and went to a different school. Despite this, we used to talk late into the night to her on the phone--sometimes her friend whose nickname was "Birdy" also joined the conversation. I don't know what ever happened to her or Birdy as John and I eventually moved out of our parent's respective houses and went to college. Despite both John and I having a steel trap for a memory, we both can't remember her name. However, I do recall that she was a big fan of the song "Always" from Bon Jovi. Everything else is a blur.