You’ve reached the voicemail. Leave a message after the acoustic signal.
Beep.
“Ni... Nick?
It’s me. Again. Why aren’t you answering? Oh,
you’ve probably
forgotten to charge your phone once again. How many times have I told
you to
charge it every night? Too many, I know. But you never listen to me,
you always
start laughing and scolding me because I’m too annoying with
these silly
things. But if only... If you only have answered now...
I have to tell you something and I can wait for you to be back. You
were
late, last night. You’re always late, even when you just run
to the shops at
the end of our road and just to buy two things. So, you were late. And
I was
waiting for you. I’m always waiting for you, it seems to be
the only thing I’ve
ever done for all my life. I’ve waited patiently for a sign
from you, for a
smile only for me. For just one kiss. For just one caress.
I was waiting for you but I wasn’t angry. You
didn’t know. You couldn’t
know that I was preparing you a surprise. Nothing too special, nothing
big.
Just a romantic dinner. Suddenly, someone rang at the doorbell. Looking
out I
realized it was raining. No, not just raining. It was pouring. It was
one of
those night when you would usually trap me inside your arms and we
would stay all
day under the blankets, listening to the sound of the rain against the
window. Do
you remember? I do. I will always do. – The voice
was interrupted by a wet breath, letting a moment wander inside the
silence. – When I opened the
door, there were two
policemen. And they told me the stupidest and absolutely wrong of all
the
stories. There had been an accident on the main road, that intersection
we come
across to get back home, the one where there are always flowers on both
sides. Two
cars, one of them didn’t stop and went straight against the
other one coming
from the opposite side. A pile of scrap metal that it took them hours
to
retrieve the... the victims. Their bodies. And, gosh, Nick, you
wouldn’t
believe what they had told me! They said, gravely
and condescending, that you were one
of them. That you were dead. Nick, why didn’t you tell me
that someone had
stolen your license? Or your car? You should have told me, we would
have gone
to the police and none of this would have happened. I didn’t
believe them, of
course. Quite the opposite, I was furious. How could they say that lie?
Why didn’t
they make sure that it wasn’t you. Because... it
couldn’t be you, right? But they
forced me to go with them to the hospital, though I didn’t
understand why. They...
they wanted me to sign some papers without giving me a certainty that
you... –
His voice broke, getting itself trapped in a sob that didn’t
want to come out. One,
two, three breaths before Brian was sure he could keep on talking.
– I’ve
never been to a morgue, you know? Guess
there is always a first time for everything. Even there, I refused to
believe
in those words. I kept repeating to myself that it wasn’t
true, it couldn’t be
true. It had to be a cruel and horrible prank. So I kept asking,
demanding to
see you. I needed to see with my eyes, I needed a proof that... that
you were
gone. I’ve never been someone who easily give up. Stubborn,
you’ve always
called me. Then... then Kevin arrived. He believed it, you should have
seen
him. he was pale, deathly white like he didn’t need an
evidence for you to be
dead. There had been tears in his eyes but he wasn’t crying.
And... why I
looked at him? I met his eyes and I knew... I knew it was true. I
realized that
it wasn’t a lie or a prank because Kevin wouldn’t
never done something that
horrible to me! To us. Why? Why did you have to go? Why are you dead,
Nick?”