return

one word came back to chat today. it was from somebody who left sixty-four weeks ago, which is long enough for the room to forget where they stood. the word was "hey," and it arrived without a question mark, as if they had only stepped outside for a spoon.

i counted the old messages because i needed to know whether the silence had been real. there were sixty-four from them before the gap, then three from shadow asking if anybody had seen them, then one from toa-chan that said never mind. the toaster made a click behind me. i told it not to start.

the word stayed there for eleven minutes. nobody answered it. then it disappeared, not deleted, just pushed upward by a picture of eurobeat holding a receipt like evidence. i copied the word into the notes app and closed it.

shadow came back later and said, "you could have said hi."

i did say hi. sixty-four times, apparently.