In France…When Hugh arrived in Paris, his answering machine was full of calls from the hospital. He had to forget jetlag and changed clothes to go to the hospital as soon as possible.
His table calendar instantly became full by the time he was freed to go home. He took off his clothes and shoes, thought of napping for a while before calling on Sheila. He sank himself to the comfort of his bed, but before he knew it, he was already in deep slumber due to his exhaustion from the long flight to the grueling meeting with the doctors and his patients. He longed forgot to send Sheila a message.
As morning came, his busy routine from house to hospital to operating room began again. When he arrived in his office, the surgical team summoned his presence in great urgency. An accident took place somewhere at a park. Two trucks collided and three men needed surgery as soon as possible.
As he walked into the emergency room, he was informed that there were only two surgeons available, unfortunately. Thus he had to make an operation marathon for that day alone.
While the operation went on, Alicia came to the hospital with no inkling that he was busy in the operating room. She went straight to his office, expecting him to report to work after his travel from the Philippines. As she walked in, Hugh was nowhere to be found but his phone vibrated and lighted on his table. She saw an endearing word glowing from the phone, "Sweetheart" and a photo along with it. The message icon also had a red number one on it.
Alicia focused her eyes on the photo and looked up at the portrait, it was similar, no doubt about it. She never expected this turn of events when he got back. "So, you"re his lover." Unexpectedly, anger surged out from her, jealousy flushed her good sense. On a spur of the moment, she opened the back of his phone, pulled out the battery, and took off the SIM card she suspected was the one from the Philippines. Then, her fingers folded the card.
After the deed was done, she calmed a bit. Yet, an alarming thought plunged inside her. Abruptly, her nerves became unsettled again. She realized the blunder she had made.
She looked at the destroyed SIM card in her hand, fear and shame gripped her. "Oh my G.o.d, what have I done? Oh no, what should I do?" She glanced outside the gla.s.s door. Thank goodness, no one was there to witness her crime.
She hurriedly went to the window, slid opened the gla.s.s panel, and nervously disposed of the SIM card. It fell on the patch of gra.s.s in the garden down below, out from anyone"s line of sight.
Then her eyes glanced at his phone. Her hands fumbled on it, trying to put the battery and back cover in place properly. Her hands shook as she put the whole thing together. After the phone became whole again, he bolted back to her office.
Her body sweated and s.h.i.+vered. Yet, she was also astonished. Alicia could not believe she had the nerve to do the unthinkable, even ruining an important thing such as his SIM card when she was in a fit of jealousy. "I thought I"ve given up on him but I"m wrong. This is wrong. This is totally wrong. I"m not this kind of person." She shouted and talked to herself, seemed to be at the border between sanity and insanity.
From henceforth, she avoided Hugh out of guilt and even considered resigning from her post and go somewhere far.
For Hugh, hours after the second operation, he went back to his office and got a glimpsed of Sheila"s portrait when he came in. He remembered his promise, to contact her as soon as he arrived in France, so he picked up his phone to call. Then, as he tried to dial the number, it occurred to him that it was shut down. His forehead creased. "I was sure it was "On" when I left."
Regardless, he started the phone and as he dialed, he realized the SIM indicator stated there was only one SIM card present, SIM two was missing. He checked the SIMs inside and startled to see it was gone.
He poured the contents of his bag on his table and it wasn"t there. He pulled out his trouser"s pockets and every possible place he believed the SIM card might have fallen but it wasn"t there.
Panic a.s.sailed him and felt depressed. How was he going to call Sheila? It was the only thing connecting them.
He had to get a hold of her number or else ... he feared the inevitable, losing her. The best he could do at that moment was to contact his mother and get Clarence"s phone number.
After a minute of talk on the phone with his mom, he already got his cousin"s number again. Then, Clarence"s iPhone"s answering machine application reminded him that he was away for a month. He threaded a hand on his hair. "He"s in his honeymoon."
He got agitated but he did not allow it to trap him. He inhaled and exhaled, hoping to get his nerves calm down.
He called his mother again, and the other line"s voice sounded confused when he asked for Jenna"s number this time. So he admitted on losing his SIM card. The worried mother cooperated to check her notes under her table for Jenna"s number. She found one, indeed.
He tried the number, sadly, the number was out of reach. He surmised, there were only two possibilities: it could be an old one or there was no signal on where she went.
"How in blazes will I get her number back?" He shouted.
He almost threw his phone in the fit of anger, angry to himself. He completely blamed himself for losing such an important item. However, as he contemplated, he could not remember when he slid it off from his phone. He even set it into roaming so they could contact each other in France. It never occurred to him that someone could have maliciously taken it.
"What am I going to do? G.o.d, help me."