I hesitated for a moment and picked up the call.
I spoke first, "Hello."
It was quiet on the over the phone. And no one spoke.
There wasn't even any sound in the slightest.
I said again, "Hello?"
No one spoke there.
Thinking that it should be a wrong call, I hung up the phone immediately.
That night, I sat on the sofa as usual, waiting for Patrick.
By the time I woke up on the sofa, I saw that the sun had completely risen outside the window and that the long-case clock was striking at 9 a.m. Then I felt a burst of loss.
Patrick's slippers were placed at the door, which was the same as they had been yesterday.
It showed that Patrick had never come back.
There wasn't even a single missed call on my cell phone.
"Where has he been? If he hadn't come back before, he would at least have texted me. He has never been like this."
I called Patrick.
No one answered my call.