"Would you like to call Mom?"
Just over the hum of an engine, a mechanic voiced droned from his car.
"Yes."
And the phone rang: one, two, three, four times.
He had told himself, many months in the past, that he would not speak to anyone on this particular day. He would say all his goodbyes, all his final words, all his hidden thoughts, in the week leading up to this day.
And he did.
Throughout the last quarter month, he had voiced all the needed words. Words not for others, but for his own peace of mind.
Some play out hypothetical scenarios: what would one say to those they love? How would one use their final breaths? But for him, this practice was not hypothetical. Unlike so many, death would not dare catch him off guard.
He had already spoken to his parents once today, when they called to wish him a happy birthday.
Nevertheless, he wanted to speak with her again. One last time. Really, just one. last. time.
On the fifth ring, she answered.
"Hello?"
She sounded tired, like perhaps she had been asleep.
"Hi, Mama." He gripped his hands tightly around the steering wheel. "Sorry to wake you."
"Oh, that's okay. You know I always want to talk with you. Are you alright? It's late."
It was rather late wasn't it. Dark: past sunset.
"Yes I'm fine, just couldn't sleep I guess."
He didn't exactly know why he had called.
"Want me to sing a song?" She asked.
A lullaby of ages past was carried through the miles by her voice. And as he listened to the flow of what had been, and of what could never be, he loosed a smile instead of tears.
YOU ARE READING
Twenty-Four Hours || k.hj
FanfictionHongjoong knew the moment he awoke; he that knew today was the day. His twenty four hours. °°° The body which had been his for over twenty five years suddenly seemed peculiar to use. Memories suffused his mind, memories he thought had been long lost...
