The Text

Partly based on a tweet posted by @ChiefSanjay

He took the mobile out of his pocket, and opened the message he had received the night before. It had brought a smile on his face. He read the message again. He still couldn’t believe he understood what the message had really meant. The text brought a silly grin on his face again. A dimple appeared on his fair cheeks, the dimple she had so slyly praised in her text last night. 

He tapped the screen of the phone and typed the three word text. He tapped the screen again and within seconds the mobile flashed “Message Delivered”. He waited for her to reply. There was a slight hint of fear in his anticipation, the fear of rejection. He checked the phone, there was no reply. He tapped it on his palm impatiently.

Half an hour had passed. There was still no reply.

****

Her eyes hurt as she came out of the mall into the sun on this May afternoon. She pulled the shades tucked on her head over her eyes. The mobile message alert rang. Her lips curved into a smile when she saw the name of the sender. She opened the message and read. The three words meant more than the thousands of messages they had exchanged in the one year that they had known each other.

She pressed the reply button and started to type on the QWERTY keypad. The smile never left her lips. Her reply would be obvious, but first she wanted to play with him. She walked on the pavement. People coming towards the mall avoided colliding with her. She walked oblivious to the world around her. Her high heels clicked on the tiled footpath. She had to cross the road. She was still thinking about the words she should choose to tease him. The warm wind blew her dark brown hair across her face.

She turned towards the zebra crossing as it struck her what her reply would be. She started to type on the mobile again, as she stepped off the pavement. A man almost crashed into her. The lights on the far side of the road turned from red to green. Her ankles twisted, as she tried to gain her balance. She tripped and fell in the middle of the road.

****

“Yes I will get the tomatoes too”, the taxi driver shouted into his mobile. He saw the traffic light turn from red to green and pressed the accelerator pedal. The Taxi shot from its place. The wife was still shouting into the phone giving him a long list of green groceries to get on his way back home. With one hand he held the phone to his right ear, and with the left hand he changed the gear. Before he could bring the hand on the steering he saw a girl fall a few yards away from the white and black alternating stripes right in front of his taxi.

As the girl fell her dark glasses smashed on the asphalt surface and her phone flew from her hands. The girl fell in a way that the upper half of her petite body was directly in line with the left tyres of the taxi. The taxi driver brought both his hands on the steering wheel and pressed on the brake pedal. The yellow and black cab swerved violently with a loud screeching noise. It was too late. The taxi driver felt the rear tyre jerk and with the jerk came a soft crushing noise. He grimaced as he imagined the bones crush under the weight of the vehicle.

****

For the hundredth time he checked his cellphone for her reply. It had been several hours. The message box was still empty.