diary of a (nearly) madwoman

On the fifteenth ring, she hangs up the phone. No answer. She fidgets in the desk chair. Something clearly is not right. No e-mails, no Skype call last night at the normal time. Just a semi-frantic IM that he was going off with the Colonel to the police station after Nasir was stopped for speeding. And that was midday...yesterday. No, something had to be wrong. He should have been home from work an hour ago. This is so NOT like him. She sits another minute. "You are being silly", she tells herself. "You know how Pakistan is. The Internet goes down all the time, and there have been lots of thunderstorms lately, so perhaps the phone service is just out." She manages to talk herself sane and goes back to work. But not before she checks her e-mail (again). No new messages. Sigh. She looks at the clock and turns back to her editing. After reading and rereading the same sentence five times, she decides to try his number one more time. This time he answers. But he is very groggy. And he can't seem to hear her. "It's me. It's ME!" But he keeps repeating, "Hello? Hello?" The line disconnects. She calls back immediately. But now the phone just rings and rings. "Why is he asleep now? It is only 7:30." She is certain something is very wrong. But what? Perhaps he mouthed off a policeman and is now stuck in a Pakistani jail? Or hit his head and has amnesia and is lost? Maybe he still hasn't recovered from their argument-to-top-all-arguments last week? Or has been kidnapped and drugged---yes, he sounded very out of it---by some militant group? "Call Nasir. That's it. I will call Nasir. He's his driver; he will know where he is for sure. Now where is that number.... " She begins to sift through the bits and scraps of paper stacked on her desk. Again, momentary sanity surfaces. She realizes she is being borderline hysterical. Clearly, he is ALIVE she rationalizes. It was his voice that picked up the phone. There is no reason to call Nasir. Yet. She returns to her laptop and begins to type him another message. "Hello husband, Where are you? I haven't heard from you since yesterday when you were going to the police station. If I don't hear from you by noon my time tomorrow, I will call Nas...." A small white box appears in the right bottom corner of her computer screen; he has just signed into Skype. Before she can hit "cancel" on the e-mail, the shrill ringtone announces his call. The dogs jump up from their sleep and bark their greetings as they always do. "Hi, I'm sick," he says. "Oh good. I thought you were dead. Well, not dead but kidnapped or something horrible." "Whhaaaat?" "Well, you didn't call last night and then you didn't answer my e-mails, and then you didn't pick up your phone...." "I have been in bed for almost two days. A bug of some sort got into my ear, bit me, and the bite got infected. So I am on all these antibiotics and feel horrible. I have to go back to the doctor tomorrow...." She nods sympathetically, but is smiling to herself, "You can be so silly sometimes." Yours truly, the almost certifiable madwoman (aka mylifeinspain)