Girl on the Phone

It was the moment when mild curiosity turned to anxious concern.

For seven nights she had been appearing in his dream. He had the vaguest impression that he knew her from somewhere in his past, though he could not place when or where. With pale complexion, and distressed, dark straggled hair, she was forever clutching her mobile phone to her ear.

Yet no words were ever spoken – just a soft, gentle, yet persistent, repetitive sobbing, interspersed with convulsive, gulping intake of breath and long sighs deep-laden with anxiety.

Each morning he had awoken from the dream, puzzled as to the girl’s identity, but very soon moved on to thinking about the pressures of his challenging working day.

Until now. Returning one evening, he had found no less than five messages on his answering machine. Playing all of them back, he heard the same unmistakeable sound – the gentle throb of the girl sobbing in his dream.

Deleting the messages, he sat down to compose his thoughts. Who was she, and what did she want?