Middle of the night…
- What’s that sound? Is my phone making that sound? What is it?
- (grabbing phone) What, phone? What are you trying to tell me?
- Recognizes name of friend displayed on phone.
- What’s wrong? Is this an alarm about [friend’s name redacted]? Is [friend’s name redacted] hurt?
- Wait, did I install a pinger on [friend’s name redacted]’s phone? I don’t remember doing that. Why would I do that? Why would I want to monitor [friend’s name redacted]?
- Why, phone? Why are you trying to alarm me about [friend’s name redacted]?
- Neuron fires.
- Oh, this is ringing. Ringing? Ringing!
- [friend’s name redacted] is calling. But why?
- Why would [friend’s name redacted] call in the middle of the night?
- Oh, maybe it’s not the middle of the night. I was writing. Maybe it’s a normal time for Saturday.
- Is it Saturday already? Holy crap — it’s Saturday?!
- I have a dentist appointment today. God, I hope I didn’t sleep through it. That would suck.
- Oh, wait, if it’s Saturday, what happened to Friday? I remember Thursday night, and writing and where’s Friday?
- I had a date Friday! I was cooking! What happened on Friday? Oh no, I can’t have forgotten a whole night? And I promised everyone I’d cook. Oh no, I failed all of it, no food, no date, and now [friend’s name redacted] is calling me in the middle of the night.
- Why does anyone call? Is [friend’s name redacted] lost? Does [friend’s name redacted] need a ride somewhere or a pickup? Is [friend’s name redacted] in trouble?
- Trouble? At a bus station? At the airport? Leaving the country? This is the last time anyone will hear from [friend’s name redacted] except postcards from small European countries.
- But I was hoping to get that animation done.
- Oh well, I’ll get it done another way. Europe is nice. Can’t say I blame [friend’s name redacted]. It’s getting kinda weird around here anyway. Might as well head off to explore. Life’s short and the world is so big.
- They’ll have a great time ([friend’s name redacted] and [friend’s partner’s name redacted]). Awesome.
- Oh.
- Phone stopped ringing.
- But it just started. Oh, man, I hope there isn’t trouble. i hope this wasn’t a come-help-me-I’m-stuck-in-a-car-trunk-somewhere call.
- Man, that’s not right. That’s not a trip to Europe at all. That’s something else.
- She should kick out the taillights and wave at passing cars. People respond to that. People call 911 for that. I can’t find her.
- Oh, text message.
- Her phone accidentally butt-dialed me.
- Ha-ha, how funny. That still happens?
- (I lie back down, drift back to sleep)
- I’ll sort it all out in the morning.
- Hey…
- …why am I on speed-dial, anyway?