She was stretched out on her living room couch reading a book.
Above all else, this was her most favourite thing. This time and place was valued beyond anything she could imagine. She was always in a state of complete relaxation and comfort when she was doing this. For all these reasons it was extremely annoying that her mobile phone should chime. When she looked down it was made worse by the fact that it was from an unknown caller. She was reluctant to stop what she was doing. She was enjoying her book and her special time out. If she didn’t answer it, they’d probably keep calling. She pressed the button and said, “Hello.”
There was a long silence before the caller whispered. “Sorry. I… I can’t believe you picked up.”
She frowned. “Who is this?”
Another few beats before the male voice said, “More to the point, who are you?”
“I’m hanging up!”
“No, please don’t. I’m the guy from the gym. We met last year. I was your personal trainer for a couple of weeks, I was filling in for someone. We had a coffee in the place across the road before you left for home. You remember, we both went to the same school?”
“Oh! Yes, I do remember. You were keen on sports cars, said you were about to buy one.”
“That’s me.”
An uncomfortable silence from her, followed by, “Well, OK. How can I help you?”
“Well, you can’t I suppose. I just got a new phone and I was deleting some of my old numbers I must have pressed ‘call’ by mistake. I’m sorry.”
She remembered him as being nice and was a little put out by the thought that she was being deleted. Of course, she couldn’t say that.
He went on. “No. This can’t be right.”
“What can’t be right?”
“You! You answering the phone.” He cleared his throat. “I’m back there you see? At the gym, I mean. One of the guys told me what happened to you.”
“What do you mean? Nothing happened to me. Is this some weird prank? If it is…”
“No! Not at all. It’s just that your old trainer told me he was pretty cut up about your accident. He… he attended your funeral.”
“OK! I’ve had enough!” she screamed, and rang off.
She felt sure that getting back into her book was going to be difficult. She picked it up and found the page. She began reading again when a low droning seemed to fill the room. She dropped the book when the ceiling light started to flicker. She was aware of a number of voices, then one of them called out, “Found her!”