Whirlwind of Time

“Houston, we have a problem,” Lily inhales deeply and continues in frustration.

“May day MAY DAY!”

It was a prayer, with the hope of a three-year-old instead of a 36 year-old, that this might help her solve her technological difficulties. Buddy’s tail wiggles from left to right. Lily's dog is her biggest cheerleader. Lily is getting more and more irritated! She has waited patiently for a whole two minutes for her story to upload on Instagram. For some odd reason, the internet seems extraordinarily slow - as a matter of fact slower than usual. With each minute she takes a deeper breath. Her phone is not just slow, it's frozen in time.

Her plan for today was and still is to upload her latest video for her 20.000 plus followers who are in eager anticipation to know how she dressed up for today. It’s not just any day as a matter of fact, but the day. For all the love birds out there. It's February the 14th and she pulled out her sexy dress in an orange red with long sleeves with enough cleavage showing yet not too much - allowing enough room for imagination. After that she wanted to call her Dad and congratulate him because it's his birthday. He now lives in a different town two hours away. The realization strikes her that she may be unable to talk to him as long as her phone won’t cooperate. Her heart feels heavy and all the sudden she feels foolish for having prioritized that upload instead of calling him first. She has a brief moment of feeling selfish and Buddy, her Golden Retriever, and best friend, licks her hand.

Now something is happening with her phone. In eager anticipation she hastily switches the app over to the main screen in hope that whatever is wrong with it is sorting itself out. Lily's phone freezes up again at exactly 11:11 am. She is losing it now! 

“What on earth is that for?! Please work! I promise to clean out the filters and all unnecessary junk!” 

Somehow thinking of being able to make a deal. Like her phone has its full on personality. 

Lily's eyes fill with tears of frustration. Valentines day was always such an event at her parents house. She fondly remembers how her father Phil used to make fun of the fact that he never missed Valentine's day because it was his birthday. He always managed to make something special for him and her mom. Two love birds, who were, so she thought at the time, disgustingly cute in a charming way. Until one day. A very dark secret came to light. Which crushed her moms heart as well as hers. All of a sudden her perfect image of how a man treats his wife shattered into a thousand pieces.

She is feeling sad and has nobody to lean on. Nor does she think she will ever have one to lean on before they all go psycho on her and leave. As men usually do. Lily feels torn between feeling lonely especially on days like this and her hopes of finding true love with a loyal soul is a mere lie she doesn't want to feed into.

So never ever having had a strong shoulder to lean on, all she ever wanted was to find someone with a heart of gold. That sadly popped when the dark secret came out. The one Phil was hiding for so long.

Even though her parents looked so happy and worked seemingly together. Nothing's really as perfect as it seems. Her father, the man in her life she always looked up to, cheated on her mother and had a secret family somewhere else. That broke her moms and Lily's spirit and contributed to her complete distrust in all men. She now is convinced they are complete losers.

Her situationship made things worse and made that distorted image of man, perfect like a sealed deal.

Lily's friends tried their best to encourage her to start dating people - convincing her that not all men are the same and there are some who do have their shit together with decent moral standards. She really wanted to believe them, but deep down buried in her soul was that nagging image that men are incapable of being loyal in the long haul. In the beginning, sure that doesn't seem to be a big problem, but ten, twenty years down the road something inside of them seems to be seeking out new adventures. Or is there more to life? She wonders on and off. Factors she isn't aware of. It's not all black and white in her beautiful mind. Every now and then she thinks that relationships are very complex and there might be a contributing factor that two people who seem so perfect for each other split and go different ways. She is not at all convinced anymore that two people are made for each other for the rest of her life. That sheer thought saddens her and her stomach tightens up in sharp pain. Since nothing is truly black and white she does have the tiniest glimmer of hope that there might be the perfect Mr. Right for at least some people.

But for her at the given moment Mr. Right isn't real but a utopia she has built up in her powerful mind - a damn good looking guy with the heart of gold who is loyal.

There has been only one male figure she ever trusted, she recalls. Oddly enough, but that was a long time ago and they were just friends. He was that one person why she still has that glimmer of hope every now and then that not all guys are baddies.

Ron was going through a rough spell at the time. Something they were able to bond over with was Ron’s twin sister Rachel who suffered a stroke as young as she was and so did Lily's aunt around the same time at the age of 37. His sister survived and is doing fine, but it freaked him out so bad. He lost all appetite and became really skinny.

The last time she heard from him was 12 years ago. He got married and she assumed has kids and family by now. And through the whirlwind of time, her new job and her engagement they lost touch. Lily moved to a different town with her runaway fiance. He was so kind to leave a letter of apology on her dresser before disappearing out of her life. That still sends cold showers down her spine. She was so young and did not see that coming.

Buddy snapps her out of her trance while holding her phone in her hands. He licks her cheeks and she gives him a good old hug. A furry hug yet better than none.

She tries to restart the internet router, but even that isn’t doing the trick. Nothing is working! Though her family went through tough times, something she is grateful for, is the loving relationship she has to both her mother and father. By the end of the day all parties just wanted to see each other happy and in good spirits and were therefore willing to forgive and make things work. Now more and thicker teardrops start rolling down her face. All she wants is to hear the comforting sound of her fathers voice. He always knows how to make her laugh.

Buddy continues to lick her hands and touches her phone with his snout and barks. Going straight to the door!

And she says: “Good idea Buddy! Let’s go for a walk and go by that Phone Doc Shop in town next door to where I bought my phone.” Lily remembers. 

That was too convenient as she recalls it back then. Her long term memory did her a favor and made that stuck for once.

“Let's see if they can fix my dilemma, Buddy!”

Buddy barks one more time and wiggles his tail!

It's a beautiful sunny winter morning and a few snowflakes make their way down. She looks at one of them who got caught on her light gray wool coat. Lily looks at it. It’s amazing. It contains all the beauty that beholds the planet.

That makes her reflect on today's difficulties and how much we depend on technology with just one device when that fails there is true trouble in paradise. Just recently her father ditched his landline which makes him even more dependable on this modern device called cellphone.

Lily looks at her phone to see if anything has changed. Nope not one bit! It still says 11:11 frozen in time.

An old lady walks by, takes a look at her dog saying, “what cutie pie he is" and glances over to Lilys cellphone.

She says astonished, “Oh, that's a spirit number! For good luck, sweety!”

Before Lily is able to respond, that old lady is on her way.

Lily is confused!

She raises her eyebrow and thinks sarcastically “Good luck!” that thing froze and isn't working at all! But sure “GOOD LUCK!”

Lily approaches the phone doc shop and walks inside. The guy's name tag says Andy, he takes one look at her phone and says: “Give me five minutes. I’ll be right back!”

Handsome dream boy walks in and up from behind her. He is getting a little bit too close for her own comfort! So she turns around very annoyed, ready to give him a peace of her own mind. And then she nearly gasps for air in disbelief.

Ron smiles at her and says with a friendly cheerful voice: “Hi!” and continues saying “I saw you walking in.”

Lily's heart jumps. He looks so very different than she remembers. Built up and she realizes how nervous she gets with a thousand butterflies in her stomach. She thinks at first she catched a stomach bug or something like that. 

She returns with, “Hi! Haven't seen you in a long time!”

Ron is lost in her beautiful eyes. Unable to concentrate on a single word. He feels like a five year old on stupid lane.

The Phone doc shop guy Andy comes back and hands over the perfectly fine working phone back to Lily.

She wonders and asks: “How did you fix it?

Andy answers with a smile, “I just sprinkled some magic on it!” 

Lily replies, “Thank God it's working now!” Thank you so much!”

Ron asks, “Are you having some technological difficulties? Hey? With a smirky smile he continues, “Women and technology!” and he laughs. Lily doesn't hesitate and just like in the good old days punches him in his left arm.

He says to her, “Come! I invite you for a cup of joe! I wanna know everything I’ve missed out on! 

She asks, “Is your wife here as well? I would love to see her.”

He gets really sad and looks down: “Well, unfortunately there is none…She died in a car crash two years ago!”

His eyes water up a little and Lily’s heart drops to her knees. He continues: “She was seven months pregnant with our son and both couldn't make it. 

She hugs him and both leave for a nearby cafè.