One Night

The phone rang unexpectedly. It always does.

I woke up with a start on the living room couch, simultaneously reaching out towards the coffee table where I guessed my phone was lying. Thankfully, it was right there. One look at the caller ID was enough to make me get up. I pressed the green icon on the screen and looked around. The television was on, with CNN on mute.

“Gabe, you would not believe who I just ran into,” came the excited voice from the other end. “I’m not sure if you….never mind, you’ll find out for yourself soon.”

I sighed. Typical of Luce to keep me on the ropes. He knew how much it bugged me. Four years in Fiji and he hadn’t changed a bit.

“A very hearty evening to you too, Luce,” I deadpanned. “Please tell me you still plan to spend the weekend at my home instead of with a barista you’ve just picked up.”

“Weirdly specific, my dude. But no, I’m definitely crashing at yours and, in fact, will be seeing that pleasantly square face of yours tonight!”

“Didn’t expect you this early, but I’m not complaining.”

“Perfect! I’m also bringing a guest and, if it’s alright with you, she’ll be staying the weekend, too.”

I paused to think about this unexpected development. I was under the impression that this would be a weekend for just me and Luce to hang out after so long and just revel in each other’s company. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this “guest”.

Sensing my hesitation, Luce said, “Don’t worry, Gabe. Not a barista that I just met. Actually, she’s someone you might know from back in our college days. We had a brief fling. I might have mentioned her here and there.”

I would have to take his word for it. I wasn’t great at keeping track of people I barely knew, no matter how many times Luce might bring them up.

“It’s no big deal, Luce. She can definitely stay. Would love to get to know her.”

“Swee-ee-eet,” he said, drawing the word out like he usually did when he was happy. “See you in a while, then. I’ve missed you, man.”

“I’ve missed you too. See you.”

I hung up the phone and couldn’t help but smile. I was going to meet a good friend after an insanely long time. I rarely get emotional, but I was on the verge of it.

And in less than an hour now, I would see him sauntering through the front door. I wondered what had changed in his life, if anything, while he was all the way there hopping from one island to another. I wondered what crazy Luce-y surprise he would spring on me. Smiling, I headed to the refrigerator to grab a can of iced tea.

                                                                       ~

“Gabriel, my boy, look at you and your square face in all its glory!”

“Nice to see you too, Luce,” I chuckled.

I pulled him into an embrace the moment he stepped through the front door. I pulled back to take a good look at him, and let’s just say a trip to Fiji probably really takes it out of you.

His hair was shorter than I remembered, more of a buzzcut now than anything else. He looked slightly pale and his skin was wrinkled beyond his years. When he smiled at me, he revealed a set of teeth that were in very urgent need of a dental operation, yellowing and angular as they were.

As he stepped in, I noticed a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties, standing outside looking shy and uncertain. Her chocolatey brown skin combined with her ombre-streaked hair rang a bell, but only faintly. Her high-cut denim top revealed a prominent navel piercing.

“Oh yeah, Gabe? You remember Hoor, from back in college? From my department? We dated for a few months.”

That must be why she seemed so familiar. I did remember meeting her, once, during a post-exam party. She seemed very down-to-earth and pleasant to talk to.

“Nice to see you, Hoor,” I said as I ushered her in and closed the door behind me. “I hope you have a great time over here at Casa Gabriel.”

“Thanks! You’ve really kept this apartment in decent shape,” she said, looking visibly impressed. “Mine is a mess.”

“Well, this one is all on Zoelle, my fiancée,” I chuckled. “She’s obsessed with keeping everything in order, bless her soul.”

“Oh yeah how’s Zoelle doing?” Luce quipped. “Haven’t been in touch with her since, you know, forever!”

“She’s doing grand,” I said as I led them towards the kitchen where I’d already set up dinner for them. My specialty: flash fried steak with bearnaise sauce. “She’s been staying at her mother’s for the past few days. Will be back after the weekend. Maybe you guys can meet up.”

“Hmm, yeah,” said Luce, suddenly distracted by something. “God, I’m starving though. And the way you’ve decorated your table isn’t helping. Excuse moi, but I’m going to dig right in.”

“Help yourself, man,” I said. “You don’t have to go all ‘overseas cousin meeting for the first time’ on me.”

I looked over to see Hoor admiring the kitchen and its rustic theme.

“I won’t be eating, I’m really not that hungry,” she said, continuing to look around the kitchen in awe. “I’ll have a glass of water though, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“None at all,” I said, motioning to the water cooler. “Please help yourself.”

We settled down on the table, Hoor with her water, and me and Luce with our plates of steak. We made small talk for a while, before silence descended as Luce started eating. Or should I say, picking on his food, because he barely seemed to be interested in it.

“What’s wrong, Luce? Don’t tell me Fiji turned you into a hardcore vegan,” I snickered.

“As if,” Luce said, rolling his eyes. “No, I guess the Polynesians really opened up my eyes to the beauty of the rare variant of steak meat. It’s underrated, I tell you. No wonder Churchill always preferred his steak as bloody as the war being waged all around him.”

I wasn’t sure if that Churchill bit was accurate, but then again, Luce did have a knack for coming up with absolutely random and false claims just to support his stance.

“But,” he said, pausing for dramatic effect. “I couldn’t care less, because you made this, and you made this gorgeous bearnaise sauce and I love you man.”

I looked over at Hoor and we rolled our eyes at each at the same time. As Luce dug into his steak, he started opening up about his experiences in Fiji, including the one time a village woman cooked up this exquisite mahi dish for him when he helped her find her troublesome chickens.

We talked and laughed for almost an eternity, and as Hoor loosened up, I got to know more about her relationship with Luce. While they had broken things off back in college after a short period of dating, they continued to remain in touch with each other all the way till graduation.

After Luce left for Fiji, Hoor made almost as much contact with him as I did. She got a job as a sales manager at a high-end fashion store and had a string of brief relationships, none of them lasting long enough to develop into anything real, she explained. When Luce returned a week ago, the first person he happened to come across was Hoor in the airport cafe. She had apparently just bid farewell to a colleague flying out to the States. This meeting, while completely unexpected, was a pleasant one and they had enough time to catch up. Luce figured it would be a good idea to string her along and make her a part of our weekend get-together.

I didn’t realize how late it was until I looked up to see Zoelle’s German clock’s hands inching towards the midnight hour. Hoor stretched her arms out as she yawned, wondering aloud where she’d get to sleep. I guided her to the guest room adjacent to mine and Zoelle’s bedroom. She thanked me and stepped inside, looking coyly at Luce before she did so.

I arched an eyebrow at my friend. He laughed at my expression.

“What can I say, Gabe? I think you know why I wanted to spend the night with her.”

I shook my head in mock disgust. Deep down though, I was kind of pleased they wanted to give their relationship another shot.

                                                                       ~

Anguish. Pain. Buckets of blood. Robotic pterodactyls. My dreams were like minefield explosions, smelling of charred bodies and smoke and death.

“Gabe, Gabe, darn it, wake up!“

My eyes flipped open, almost mechanically, to find a very anguished and sweaty Luce looming over me. I groaned; he better not be here asking for condoms.

“What’s up, dude?” I got up, slowly rubbing my eyes.

Luce was pacing the room, looking visibly anxious.

“Did Hoor tell you she was going to leave in the morning or something?” he asked, not looking at me directly while he did so.

I looked around for my phone and found it underneath my pillow. I turned it on. It was 7:45 in the morning.

“I thought she was spending the night with you,” I muttered groggily. “You would know.”

“That’s the thing, man. I definitely remember falling asleep next to her last night,” Luce replied. “But I woke up a while back and she just wasn’t there. I can’t find her purse or phone or anything either.”

I stood up and headed to the bathroom. I turned on the tap and spent a good amount of time slapping cold water on my face. I looked up from the sink to stare at my reflection in the mirror for what felt like an eternity before I turned around to look at Luce.

“I’m assuming you’ve already tried reaching out to her.”

“Yeah, I must have called her like twenty times. No response from her end.”

Luce looked like he had seen a ghost, and I could see his hands trembling slightly by his side.

“Luce, hey, it’s alright,” I said, trying to placate him. “We’ll figure out where she is, I promise.”

Luce nodded, even though it looked like he didn’t really believe it.

I headed to the guest room and stepped through the slightly ajar door. The bedsheets looked rumpled the way one might expect of a bed that has just been slept in. And I could see Luce’s black bag in the corner. But I couldn’t see any evidence of Hoor.

I walked closer to the bed, not sure what I was looking for, but hoping I could get some clues anyway. Other than a couple of loose hair strands, which looked like Hoor’s, I couldn’t find anything else. She hadn’t left any notes. She wasn’t picking up her phone. Why on earth did she just decide to leave? Did she want to escape something? Someone?

I looked around the guest room. It has a single window by the side of the bed, large enough for an average-sized person to climb through. There is a drainage pipe running along one of the walls adjacent to it. If she didn’t want to take the front door, this would have provided the perfect escape route for her…..

I headed back to my room to find Luce still pacing around, lost in deep thought.

“Luce, what the hell happened last night?”

He looked up, and I knew my friend well enough to know that the look on his face was one of deep remorse.

“Look, I don’t want you to lose it or anything, but me and Hoor might have had a fight? Okay no, sorry, I’ll be straight with you: we definitely had a fight. Something about our past and why we broke up. She still thinks I cheated on her. Words were exchanged. You know how she gets all angry and emotional when we argue? She just stormed away.”

I closed my eyes and suddenly felt the onset of a piercing headache. I rubbed my temples slowly, before looking at Luce again.

“No, Luce, I DON’T know what she’s like goddammit. I didn’t even know her all that well until last night. And I can’t believe you decided to bring her over only to screw everything up. You’re unbelievable.”

He looked defeated, like he had nothing more to say. He might even have been ashamed of himself, but I wasn’t sure.

“Well, there you have it then. She hasn’t left or anything. Your boy Luce got some chick mad and she left. Just like that. She’s probably talking to her girlfriends right now about what an asshole I am.”

I shook my head, still feeling the painful throbbing. I found myself wishing Zoelle was here. She had this magical way of singing a lullaby to me while I rested my head on her lap. That would always cure my headaches.

“Whatever, Luce. I’m going to go brew some coffee for myself. You want some?” I asked over my shoulder as I headed over to the kitchen.

“Gabe, actually, if it’s alright, I think I’m gonna leave.”

I closed my eyes. Well, THAT wasn’t part of our weekend plans.

“Why? Is everything alright?”

“Yeah no I don’t feel like hanging around anymore. Not today, at least. Truth be told, I feel like crap about everything that happened. I’m going to try and see Hoor at her place. You can come with me if you want. We can kill the time in your favorite bar, if nothing else.”

I wanted to be there for him, I really did. But my head continued to pound away, and I also knew I wouldn’t able to convince Luce to stay. He was stubborn like that.

“Nahh that’s alright, man. I don’t feel good today. Just keep me updated, no matter what happens. And if you want a place to crash, you know where to come over.”

Luce came over and pulled me into a tight embrace. I could smell something distinctly sweet and familiar on his shirt. Hoor’s perfume, I realized.

“See you later, Gabe. And thanks. For everything. Wish me luck.”

And with that, my friend hoisted his backpack and headed out through the front door after almost 12 hours since he had last entered through it. I poured myself a cup of coffee, trying hard to think through the searing headache.

                                                                       ~

By noon, I knew that Luce was lying.

It all started when the caffeine started kicking in. Even though my mind was still foggy from the headache, I could think clearly enough to string together everything that had transpired ever since I’d woken up.

For one, I decided to go through the guest room one more time. Nothing. The bathroom didn’t yield anything either. I figured there might be an obscure clue, maybe some signs of a struggle, that I might have missed out on the first time around. However, all I knew for sure was that Hoor and Luce had spent the night here.

Except Hoor hadn’t spent the WHOLE night here. She had stormed off after their argument, yes, but when exactly did she leave? I wasn’t sure why that was important, but it was a detail I realized Luce never brought up. I knew just where to go.

My apartment is part of a complex that has a fairly decent security system, including CCTV cameras on each floor. If I could access the CCTV footage for midnight to the early morning hours for my floor, the timestamps would help me figure out when Hoor left.

I went down to see the warden, and after making meaningless small talk, got straight to the point. After listening to everything, he shrugged in an indifferent manner and guided me to the grid of screens where we could observe everything happening on each floor. He pointed his finger at the screen on the top-right: my floor.

He then proceeded to replay the footage captured from midnight till 7:45 AM, because I remembered Luce had woken me up at that time.

I counted five people who either entered or left their rooms during this time. Hoor wasn’t one of them. I thanked the warden and exited his room, my headache starting to build up again.

So Hoor hadn’t left my apartment at all. Not through the front door at least. My mind raced back to the window in the guest room and how I thought someone could escape through it.

That had to be it, I thought, as I slowly walked up the stairs to my floor. Luce and Hoor had an argument. It escalated into a fight. Luce must have threatened her. Or something of the sort. And Hoor, scared out of her wits, must have escaped when she had the chance. Right?