On the platform, Ian fumbled frantically inside his shoulder bag for the phone but found none.
There could not have been a worse time for a distraction with the train arriving in a few minutes.
- No big deal! - thinking as he embarked on the train.
The door hissed shut and the train departed.
Over the next two days, at the university, Ian was asking his fellow students around if they could imagine someone nowadays get by without a cell phone.
"No way I can!", "Oh, please!", "No phone? Give me a break!" - were the most popular replies. Others merely shook heads.
All those "gadget druggies", as Ian put it, seemed utterly nonplused by the question.
Upon arriving home, Ian stepped into the picture while his parents were cooking lunch. Following next was the conversation struck up by Ian's father.
- How's it like to go around without a phone? - shaking hands with his son.
- Fantastic!
- Told you he'd say so!
The mother nodded.
- Any news, honey? - she asked as Ian gave her a smack.
- Nah! - he waved off. - It's been just two days.
"Be right back!" - Ian said on his way out of the kitchen as he left.
Quickly, he changed his clothes and came looking for the phone. In the living room, he checked the couch on which, out of his own remember, he had forgotten the device.
Nothing.
A folding table in the corner, cluttered with coins and miscellaneous papers, was inspected, too. Ian even combed through the dusty attic but threw up his arms in despondency.
Although, Ian was content he had been phoneless for a couple of days, he could not help asking his parents.
- Where's my cell?
- What are you, a prisoner?
Ian rolled his eyes.
- My cell PHONE!
The father laughed.
- You can kiss it goodbye now. - he mocked.
Apparently in no mood for jokes, Ian crossed his arms earnestly.
- You did without it great then, you'll do without it now. - the father added on.
- It's in plain sight, honey. - said the mother.
- How come I can't find it then? - Ian demanded. - I've searched high and low!
- Because, unlike all sorts of per-SON-s, we don't hide things away. - his father explained firmly.
- Oh, well. - Ian uttered. - Then there's just one question bothering me.
- And what's it that? - his parents were dying to hear him out.
- Is the phone really still around?
- Got to keep your eyes peeled once in a while!
- Hey! I need the lens!
That "plain sight" was Ian's black loudspeaker. Lying on top of it inside a case of the same color, the phone blended in like a chameleon.
Here was the next day of Ian's departure.
- Ian! Did you pack everything? - the loving voice reached his ear from downstairs.
He fished the cell out of the bag. This time, he would leave it purposely at home.
There was a string of fairly well-worded thoughts inside his mind as he started pacing from the doorway back towards the computer table.
Two phone-free days have been one helluva time. You were spending it all alone, as if in the wilds of the foothills. You're off the grid, unreachable! Not having a gadget chained to you is, no doubt, one of the wonderful feelings there is. After all, if our folks went through life without a phone...
Inside a drawer, he stowed it.
...why can't we?
- Yeah, mom! - fibbing as he exited the room.
