Prompt: the phone rings

***

The phone rings. “Hello?’

I hear was a soft sigh on the other end. I check the time.

“Annie?”

Soft sigh. “Yeah.”

“Hi. I haven’t heard from you in a while. How are you doing?”

“Okay, You know.”

“Yeah.” Pause.

“How’s the job hunt going?” Silence. “Annie?”

“My friend got me a dress for my job interview.”

“That was nice of her.”

“Yeah.”

“How’d the interview go?”

Sigh. “It was out of reach.”

“I can see that. May be you just have to show them how willing you are to work for them,” I offered.

“They asked about the last three years.”

“What did you say?”

“I made up a story about traveling.”

“How did that go over?”

Sigh. “They cut my interview short. They left a message at the centre saying they gave the job to someone else.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Annie.” I hear resignation in her voice. “Annie, do you have any other interviews?”

“No.” Firm determination. “I’m not looking.”

“Oh. Is there anything else you want to talk about? Are you still having nightmares?”

“Melissa… I just called to say goodbye.” Was that happiness in her voice? Crap. Panic washes over me. “Thanks for listening to me all these years. I really appreciate it.”

“Annie?” I called. Click. “Annie? Wait, Annie?” Silence. I feel desperate.

For the first time in a long time, I feel I lost her. I want to help, but these phone lines give me very little power.

I dial the phone.

“Detective Hanson speaking.”

“Mark? Its me Mel from the helpline. Can you do me a favor? Can you go check out the centre? I think I lost one.”
“Sure Mel.” Click. Maybe I had some power left, but I didn’t feel better.

***

A few years ago l joined a startup writing group called ThinkingTen. The concept is simple: there’s a daily prompt and you have 10 minutes to write whatever comes to mind. l deleted my blog posts from the site when I received an email saying the founder was shutting down the site. I hadn’t written anything in a while anyway. It’s still going, but I’ve decided to repost my original works here for Fiction friday.