The August 2009 Selected Story

Please feel free to contact E.J Tett at: emma@ejtett.freeserve.co.uk

DELETE CONTACT?
by E.J. Tett

It had been a beautiful service. That’s what everyone had said. The sun had shone and the flowers in the church were just lovely.

All Francis could remember were the trees casting shadows over the grave as the coffin was lowered into the ground.

He wondered at that. Why do I remember the shadows when everybody else talks about the sun?

Maybe because he had known her better than anyone. He had known what she was really like. The sulks and the tantrums and the way she would scream at him...

Maybe it was to do with his conscience. Everybody told him that he couldn’t have done anything else, that he had tried his best to resuscitate her.

Francis sat in his mother-in-law’s kitchen long after everybody else had left. His mother-in-law offered him the left over sandwiches to take home but he shook his head and waved her away.

He sat on a stool at the breakfast bar and stared at his phone. Her number was there stored between his sister Harriet’s and his friend Kevin’s.

Keeley Mob.

He’d never bothered to change it to just ‘Keeley.’ There had been a Keeley Mob and a Keeley Home, but he’d deleted Keeley's home number after they’d moved in together. That just left the mobile number, still programmed into his phone.

Francis snapped the phone shut and pushed it into his pocket. There was no point thinking about it.

*****

The tomato soup had an oily skin on it now and he could see specs of dust sitting in it. Francis dipped a finger into his lunch and then pulled it out again, watching with his nose screwed up as the cold soup slid from his finger.

“You’re meant to eat it,” Kevin said, grinning and sitting himself at the table. Kevin, who was there to cheer him up and help him through this difficult time...

“Keeley made this,” Francis said. “When she was going through her healthy food phase. She made tons of bloody tomato soup.” He sucked his finger and then stared into space again.

Kevin sighed. “I have to go to work, mate,” he said. “Are you joining me?”

“Maybe later.” Francis was vague. He heard the chair slide back on the kitchen floor as Kevin got up. He wanted to ask Kevin how long he intended on staying but instead he sighed and looked at his soup again. The door to the flat closed with a gentle click. Keeley used to slam it.

Francis felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and he pushed the soup away and pulled his phone out from the back of his jeans. He stared at the screen.

Keeley Mob. Theres plenty of soup in the fridge hun heat it up xx

Francis felt his pulse quicken as he read the text again. “Old message,” he said aloud. It had to be. His phone was old; it took a while for messages to get through sometimes, especially when his inbox was full. He smiled and read the message again; it used to annoy him that she never bothered to use punctuation in her texts.

He pressed delete, left his phone on the table, and got up, taking the bowl of soup with him to pour it down the sink.

As he turned the tap on, the phone vibrated again, moving a little on the tabletop. Francis dried his hands on the tea towel and then opened up the fridge, taking out a carton of milk. He stood and drank it, looking at his mobile phone on the kitchen table. He heard it vibrate again.

“Popular,” Francis muttered, putting the milk away. He picked up his phone. Too many messages waiting, delete from inbox?

“Bloody thing,” Francis said. He sat down at the kitchen table and went through his phone, deleting old messages that he didn’t want to keep. He waited for just a moment before the phone vibrated again.

Keeley Mob. Do u miss me? xx

Francis stared at the message, his heart pounding in his chest. He laughed a little and then pressed delete. “You’re going to get a few like that,” he told himself. Now that he’d cleared his inbox, messages were going to come flooding in. Keeley used to snap at him for not texting her back instantly and he would explain time and time again that the message hadn’t come through yet.

He was just about to tuck the phone back into his pocket when it vibrated again. Francis heaved a sigh and then read the message.

Keeley Mob. Y r u ignoring me? xx

You’re dead, Francis wrote as a text. His finger hovered over the send key, but then he pressed the back button and edited his message to read: Where are you?

And then he waited.

*****

Francis lay in bed in the dark, listening to Kevin snoring in the spare room. He felt around on the bedside table for his mobile phone, and finding it, pressed one of the keys to light up the screen.

There were no messages. Francis sighed and put the phone back down. Of course there were no new messages. Keeley couldn’t text him back.

He blinked in the dark. Why ask where she is? he thought. You know exactly where she is.

*****

There was a bird singing outside the bedroom window. That’s what woke Francis up. He’d not heard birds singing in the morning for a long time. He was usually up and at work already, or, at the weekends, too tired to be woken by anything bar Keeley.

He listened to the bird. It was a blackbird, he supposed. He knew they liked to sing. Francis smiled and closed his eyes, it was a comforting sound. Peaceful.

He woke again when his phone vibrated on the bedside table. Francis reached out and grabbed the phone, pulling it back into bed with him. He scratched his head tiredly.

Keeley Mob. Do u miss me? xx

“Not this again,” Francis muttered. He deleted the message, yawned, and then closed his eyes again.

A moment later and the phone vibrated. Francis ignored it. He was aware of the silence outside now, the bird had gone. He wished it would come back. The phone vibrated again. And then again.

Francis sat up in bed and reached for the phone. Keeley Mob. U know where I am xx

He deleted the message and read the next. Keeley Mob. Do u miss me? xx Keeley Mob. U know where I am xx

“Bloody hell,” Francis said. There was something wrong with his phone. He’d take it into the shop and complain until they fixed it. His wife was dead and he was receiving messages from beyond the grave; did these people know how stressful that was?

Again the phone vibrated. Keeley Mob. R u going to work? xx

Francis stared at the message with a dawning realization. “Kevin,” he said.

It had to be! His stupid bloody mate was sending him messages to wind him up. Kevin must have gotten hold of Keeley’s phone. That was the explanation.

“Bastard,” Francis hissed, getting out of bed. “That bloody bastard!” He pulled his clothes on one-handedly as he still clutched the mobile phone.

It vibrated again and he glanced at the screen. Keeley Mob. Do u miss me? xx

“I’m gonna kill him,” Francis said. He shoved the phone into his back pocket and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

*****

Francis stormed into the office block, took the stairs two at a time, and then virtually launched himself across the room, tackling Kevin at his desk and knocking the other man to the floor.

“Do you think it’s funny, eh?” he yelled into Kevin’s face. “You think it’s funny?”

“Get away from me, man!” Kevin yelled, squirming away.

Francis felt himself pulled up and back by another man and he shook him off roughly. “You bastard,” he hissed at Kevin. “She’s dead! You’re sick!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, mate, calm down, yeah?” Kevin said.

“I am calm,” Francis growled. He looked around the office, aware that the work had stopped and all eyes were on him. He pulled the phone from his pocket and showed it to Kevin. “Look. Messages from Keeley. She’s dead, Kev!”

“You think I sent them?” Kevin asked incredulously. “I wouldn’t do that to you! I don’t have her phone. Have you checked to see where it is?”

Francis hadn’t. He raked a hand through his hair and shook his head. “No,” he admitted. He looked at Kevin. “You didn’t send these?”

“No, mate,” Kevin said. “Go home, yeah? Chill out.”

Francis nodded, shook the other guy’s hand from his shoulder, and then headed towards the door feeling foolish.

*****

The soup didn’t taste so bad heated up. In fact, it was surprisingly good. Francis dialled his mother-in-law’s number and waited for her to pick up. He slurped at a spoonful of the soup.

“Hello?”

“Uh yeah, hi Margaret, it’s Francis,” Francis said, dipping his spoon into the bowl again.

“Francis! Hi, how are you?”

“Good,” he said, blowing on the soup. “Margaret, have you got Keeley’s mobile at your place? It’s not here, I’ve looked.”

Francis heard his mother-in-law close a door and walk across a tiled floor. “Hang on,” she said. “Uh... yeah, Francis, it’s here. Did you want it?”

Francis lowered the spoon back into the bowl. “Has anybody touched it?” he asked. “Where did you find it?”

“It was just on the kitchen table; maybe Peter’s had it?”

Francis shook his head. Of course! Keeley’s brother. Bastard. “Margaret, I think Peter’s been sending me messages from the phone. You might want to have a word with him.”

“Peter? What sort of messages?”

“Pretending he’s Keeley,” Francis said. “Look, wait in, yeah? I’ll come and pick up the phone. It’s fine, no harm done. I’ll just get the mobile and we can forget all about it.”

There was silence. Francis wondered if Margaret was still there. Then he heard her sigh. “Yeah,” she said. “Sorry about this. Come on over.”

*****

The drive back home was one of the best drives ever. Francis grinned and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. He felt like singing. Keeley’s mobile phone sat on his passenger seat. “Maybe I’ll chuck it in the canal,” he said. He laughed at that thought and hummed a little tune to himself.

When he pulled up in the driveway he snatched up the mobile phone and went through Keeley’s messages nosily. “Boring,” he said, tossing the phone onto the kitchen table once he was inside.

He pulled up a chair and sat down, taking his own phone from his back pocket and going through the numbers. Keeley Mob. Delete contact? Francis hesitated.

Delete contact?

Francis sighed and put his phone away without changing anything. What was the point in deleting her number? He’d leave it. Forget about everything now. Move on.

*****

That night Francis slept fitfully. He dreamt of Keeley slipping into the canal, thrashing in the water, coughing and choking and calling for help...

A steady pulse vibrating through the bedside table woke him up and he rubbed at his face sleepily before reaching for his mobile phone. He wondered who the hell would call him at this time of night.

He looked at the screen. Keeley Mob.

Francis felt his heart pound painfully in his chest. He blinked hard and stared at his phone again as it vibrated in his hand. Keeley Mob.

Francis took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He answered the phone. “Hello?”

There was nothing at first and then faint static. Francis listened hard, trying to work out who was doing this to him. “Hello?” he said again. The line went dead.

Francis realised his hands were trembling as he got out of bed. He clutched his mobile phone and crept downstairs to the kitchen, putting all the lights on as he went, not caring if he woke Kevin. He wiped away a tear distractedly and inched closer to the kitchen.

The phone vibrated again and he swore and dropped it to the floor. He picked it up with shaking hands. Keeley Mob.

Francis steadied his nerves and then opened the kitchen door quickly and flicked on the lights.

Keeley’s mobile phone was on the kitchen table where he’d left it. The screen was lit up and as he could see the words Calling Francis.

His phone was still vibrating in his hands and he lifted it to his ear, keeping an eye on Keeley’s mobile on the table. “Hello?” he said.

Static. Francis swallowed hard, listened for a moment and then cut the call. He lowered the phone from his ear and waited.

When the phone pulsed in his hand he knew that he’d received a text. Keeley Mob. I didn’t slip xx

“Who’s there?” Francis said, looking towards Keeley’s mobile on the kitchen table. He snatched it up quickly and held onto it tightly. He looked around the room. “Who’s doing this?”

One of the phones vibrated in his hand and he looked down at it. Keeley Mob. U pushed me L

“I didn’t!” Francis said urgently as he looked around the room wildly, and then at both phones in his hands. “I didn’t,” he repeated.

Keeley’s phone lit up. Calling Francis. A second later his phone vibrated. Keeley Mob.

Francis hurtled both phones across the kitchen then held onto the table to steady himself, taking a deep breath. “This isn’t real,” he said. He slammed a fist down on the table angrily. “This isn’t real!”

He stared at the phones on the kitchen floor. He could see his own moving a little across the floor as it vibrated steadily.

“It was an accident!” he told the phones. Then he laughed. “All right, it wasn’t. Yes I pushed you, you annoying bitch.”

His phone fell silent. Francis took a breath and straightened up.

He heard wet footsteps on the floor then and his blood ran cold. “Keeley?” he asked.

And then the lights in the kitchen went off.

The August 2009 Selected Writer

E.J. Tett from England

E.J. Tett is the author of The Kingdom of Malinas, a young adult fantasy adventure novel. She is interested in both fantasy and horror and has had work published in various webzines and magazines. She currently lives in Somerset, England, with her family and two pet rats.