The phone

Such a mundane thing, a phone, it's just there all the time to help with everything: work, money, social, personal shit. Well, it's there until it isn’t and that's the first time you think of the actual object itself: the phone; your phone.

I started to panic about 10 minutes after I got out of the cab, patting every inch of the clothes I had on, even those inches that had no pockets. All for nothing; it was gone.

My phone went on Uber ride, sharing the backseat with unfamiliar people and rubbing against strange new butts. At some point it was even grabbed , manhandled and studied all over and then it happened; it was shoved into a strange new pocket. My phone was lost in an unknown world and it couldn’t call for help. Actually, it cried, out loud, his default ancestor song, when I called it, but, it was quickly set on mute.

Later that same unusual, shaky hand got it out into the light and dropped it promptly on the sidewalk when again I was calling from a friendly device. The poor thing, actual thing, bounced around on the cement, but, being a sturdy tool for its price, it only got a few scuff next to the old ones. To its surprise it didn’t get picked up by the shaky hand instead was kicked by an angry, overpriced snicker, all the way to the curb. It fell, gently, to the side of the street. The scene was scary: cars honking, busses puffing, cyclist cursing and a lot of very hurried people.

The hellish spectacle went on for hours. It was getting dark. Cold and abandoned, my device felt hopeless; in fact it wasn’t cold it was getting hot from all the vibrating. I was calling constantly and it was running out of juice. My perfect little phone was dying.

As the final warning about battery life flashed on the screen, a new hand picked it up. This hand felt different, it was steady and comfy. The device died with a full heart.

It was brought back to life 10 min later on a diner table with help from a slick usb type-c cable. The nice hand picked the phone up again as it answered my frantic call and the device was very happy to notice the hand matched the calm voice that was now talking in its microphone.

Inundated with emotions never felt before, we were reunited a few hours later.