07 Tyche in Friendship and Focus
Added 2020-03-08 19:01:00 +0000 UTC“If you were playing at the top of your game, I would never have scored on you,” Chao continued.
“Oh, come on,” I protested, but he waved it aside.
“No false modesty,” he admonished, “we both know it’s true. Your technique isn’t perfect, I grant you, but your speed and instinct more than make up for any rough edges. You could take me without breaking a sweat if your head was in the game.”
I gave up. “It’s… I’ve got a friend,” I said, “but I haven’t heard from her in a couple days.”
“Is that unusual?” he asked.
“Very,” I nodded.
“And you’ve tried calling her?”
“And I stopped by her house after work, yesterday, and again before class today, in case I missed her,” I confirmed, “and… I don’t think she’s even been home.”
“This is unusual for her?”
I snorted. “She’s a hermit with a heart condition,” I informed him, “and I’m her doctor. She might take a trip without telling her priest, or something, but not without telling me.”
Chao frowned. “You have reason to be distracted, then,” he said. “Perhaps you should speak with the police; a missing persons report needs time to work through the system, so getting the process started now can only cut down on the delay between suspicion and action.”
I peeled off my top as I headed for the door.
“That’s a good idea, Shidoshi,” I said, waving as I left, “I should have thought of it. Her boyfriend’s a cop…”
* * * * *
This story has been sitting on my hard drive for more than a year; it was never released, although, properly, it belongs between A First Small Apocalypse Part 01 and A First Small Apocalypse Part 02. I like it because it's a good little slice of life, but it was always too short to stand by itself as a purely textual story, clocking in at only a little over 1300 words, all told.
