BooksBarbecue
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Chapters (57)
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Dedication
  4. Dedication2
  5. 1994
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 2006
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. 23
  30. 24
  31. 25
  32. 26
  33. 27
  34. 28
  35. 29
  36. 30
  37. 31
  38. 32
  39. 33
  40. 34
  41. 35
  42. 36
  43. 37
  44. 2018
  45. 38
  46. 39
  47. 40
  48. 41
  49. 42
  50. 43
  51. 44
  52. 45
  53. 46
  54. 47
  55. 48
  56. 49
  57. Acknowledgements

Heidi only stayed another ten minutes. She had little patience for this kind of thing. She couldn’t stay too long in proximity to it. Heidi was busy. A deep kind of busy. She was busy in her soul, and this sort of thing, an untidy kitchen with a person newly alone, agitated her. Heidi left, making an excuse – another thing to do, a thing she’d forgotten about that she needed to do – and the phone charged some more, and Margaret was alone with it at last. Alone with it charged enough to be turned on, and she crawled under the table on all fours and then down on her elbows so she could hold it in both hands. She turned it on, and it hummed a little with the effort of coming to life and in the bottom of the tiny screen was a small envelope with a 1 on top of it. She used the hard, clicky arrow keys on the face of the phone to navigate to the envelope and opened it and there was a message. There were a couple of read messages and no unread messages – like it was a brand-new phone. She clumsily navigated to the message and there it was, black pixels carving out letters on the grey pixels. Are u awake? Is there snow there?

37

37

Margaret carried the phone everywhere. She sat it on the bathroom bench and looked at it as she brushed her teeth. She looked at it a lot. First just to make sure it wouldn’t go away and then to make sure she didn’t miss it when it chimed. She didn’t want to starve the tiny pixelated monster who needed food and medicine and fun but more importantly she didn’t want to miss any of the messages. The envelope in the corner of the screen would change and sometimes it vibrated. Buzzed across tables. The phone wasn’t small enough to fit in her pocket so she had to carry it in her hand. She would stuff it under the belt of her pants. She wore it around the house this way. She slept with it beside her and sometimes it would squeal in the night and she’d wake up to feed the monster or read a message. Sometimes another monster would be there, and she would look after that as well.

There would be a rise in her body when the messages arrived. K., then maybe a couple of hours later Eh.. is it? What time ur sis timing? Then:

Hee.. reached. I wait on top k.

K.

Kk .. :) dm got say anything?

Ok.:-).

K.

k.

k.

Sometimes there were days’ worth of k’s and No’s and Ya’s. She wrote all the messages in the notebook next to the times and dates they arrived. She carried the notebook everywhere too – not just for the messages but for recording anything she hadn’t noticed before.