Gemotions

The telephone rang late at night, pulling Ms. Albright from her sleep. She answered, her voice groggy.

“Hello?”

A voice on the other end, raspy and barely audible, whispered, "Thank you." Then, the line went dead.

She sat up in bed, her heart hammering against her ribs. The voice… it was familiar. It sounded like Mark, one of her former students, a boy who had always been distant and difficult.

She stared at the phone in the darkness, the silence of the night pressing in on her. The simple words, and then the nothing, left her with a profound disquiet.