Dialing. Dialing. Dialing. No answer. What is going on? I hope there’s nothing wrong…wait. If something had happened to William, his mother would’ve called my mother and my mother would’ve sent out an emergency satellite alert, which would have surely reached me by now. So why wasn’t he answering the phone? Okay, but this time is the last time.

Dialing. Dialing. Dialing. “Hello?”

“William. Hey!”

“Hey.”

“What took you so long to answer the phone? I thought something was wrong. You always answer the phone. Didn’t you see my number on the caller ID?”

“Yeah.”

“So why didn’t you pick up the phone? Were you online?”

“No.”

“Were you outside chopping wood?”

“No.”

“Then why didn’t you pick up the phone?”

“Montana, do you know what time it is?”

“Yeah, it’s nine o’clock.”

“Where? In Japan?”

“No, in San Francisco, silly. I’m in San Francisco.”

“Well, I’m in Baltimore, and in Baltimore it’s midnight.”

“Okay, so it’s midnight, I just, you know, figured that you weren’t busy so I thought I’d, you know, call to say hi. You weren’t busy, were you?” I asked, sensing his shortness.

“Yeah, actually I was busy.”

“Doing what?” I asked, laughing, “taking the plastic off the couches?”

“No.”

“Scraping the Spider-Man wallpaper off the walls in your old bedroom?” I said, laughing even louder.

“No.”

“Then what could you possibly be doing at midnight alone without me?” Still laughing.

“William, where did you say the towels were?” My laughter came to an abrupt halt. Now I know I did not just hear what I think I heard. That woman’s voice had better be coming from the television, a neighbor, something.

“William!” Nope, that wasn’t the T.V., and didn’t sound like the neighbor either.

“They’re in the cabinet, third drawer from the bottom,” he answered her.

“Uh, William. Who was that?” I asked, bewildered.

“Who was what?”

“That voice.”

“A friend.”

“A friend? At midnight?”

“Oh, so now you know how to tell time.”

“Ha ha. William, what kind of friend comes over at midnight?”

“I have a lot of friends who come over at midnight.”

“Like who?” I said, drilling him.

“Like you.”

“Yeah, but we don’t do what you’re obviously about to do or just finished doing.”

“Whose fault is that?”

“It’s nobody’s fault…and that’s not what I’m trying to say anyway…”

“Then what are you trying to say? Would you rather it be you over here with me doing what I’m about to do or just got finished doing?”

“William! I can’t find them. It’s cold and I’m dripping wet!”

“Well…” I said, frustrated and admittedly flustered, “I guess I should probably let you go so you can help your friend who’s obviously having difficulty navigating her way through the only cabinet in the entire room.”