Saturday. It's 7am. Connecticut.

    "Not again. Who's this again?"

     He concentrated on the PC. He didn't want to check the phone. He was tired of calls already. As early as it seemed, he had already answered five calls that morning. 

    Many of his clients had been all over the phone with him wanting to know when their works would be ready. 

    He was a computer expert. A graphic designer, Photoshoper, Blender guru, top company data encoders etc etc. He always had people on his neck. Always. 

    His ringtone, ICE by Morgenshtern got to the crazy part of,

     "Ay ihn ihm, ay fahasjaywgwgsyw"

     before he turned to his phone. He always loved to hear that part before answering the call. Though twas always towards the hanging of the call. Those were some dipshit comics that made more sense to him. 

     Damn! Twas Ishbella. Why was she calling that early? 

     She wouldn't figure out why he had delayed her call. Twas too early and she probably might think that he was still sleeping. 

     He tapped and dragged the  green accept icon right. She came on air. He should speak first but she had her way again,

     "Did I wake you?"

    He should lie. Yes! That was the best option. 

    "Yes! Hi, Ishbella."

    "Ishbelle, please."

     He thought quickly about it. Ishbella and Ishbelle, no difference. Even to be frank, Ishabella was supposed to be the right name. Not even that. Isabella is. 

    He was pretty dumb. Who argues with himself?

     "My bad. Good morning, Angel."

     That was a nice start. Thumbs up to himself. 

    He felt thirsty. He had wanted to had a slurp before the call bumped in. And whenever twas Ishbella or Ishbelle, whatever, calling, he always lost it.

    If he tried taking the coffee, she would notice. Oh! She was that sensitive. He was going to take a risk. 

     "Maybe I should just let you sleep. Good sleep is luck."

      He chuckled. Was he supposed to?

     "No! Never mind. You can stay. I even wanted an excuse to get away from this tiring task I've been up doing."

    He paused. What had he just done? Why was he so stupid? He had just told her a contrary information to the 'I just woke up' lie he had told her. 

     He knew she would never let it slide. She was smart. She would figure it out. He was sure. 

     "Oh! Well,great then."

    She said. He was wrong. No! She wasn't smart. Probably he had over hyped her. 

     "Yup. Back to that quote. The Good sleep is luck. Who propounded it?"

    He pushed his PC and sat up on the bed with his back resting on the top brace. He wanted to switch to the swan chair but he wasn't feeling any pain. 

     "Mary Ishbelle."

     "Oh. My! I bet she's some Harvard professor."

    She chuckled. He loved it whenever she did that. It gave him a peace. A peace that shunned all foolishness he might had portrayed. 

    "Nope. She hated school. She's a life professor. An independent one."

   He laughed and she joined him. They both stopped at the same time. There was peace and quite. 

    Then he folded one of his arms under his armpit. He had no idea what he was doing. He asked,

     "Where'd you go to college?"

     She hesitated firstly. He could sense it. He was a dummy but not to that extent. There should be a reason. 

     She resumed,

     "UC Davis."

     "That's California. Like 45 hrs by a fast car and times two by a super sluggish one. By the way, How'd you end up in Connecticut."

      Hmm hmmm. He shouldn't had said that. He had said the 'end up' as though she had no fate or had lost her bearing in life. 

     Damn! He shouldn't be a judge in a court, he'd sentenced himself to death by electrocution. 

    He awaited her response,

       "Of course flight. Who has the patience to sit in a car for such long hours. By the way, just hopping and swaying by. Wanted somewhere super far from my hometown."

     "Oh. California is your hometown. Mine is Michigan, Detroit."

     "That's far too. 14 hrs away I guess."

      "Nope. 12hrs."

      "Impressive though. How'd you keep track of the time and all. That's interesting."

    He was glad. He could simply say that she had made his day. She had never actually appreciated him in a grand style. That wasn't one though but he would take it as one. When a new one comes, he would replace. 

     "That's the nature of my work. I meet different people. Even people from as far as China and Moscow."

      "Nice. You should have five of the 64 pages international passport."

    He laughed hard. Laughed for some while. She didn't. He stopped. Probably he was just being stupid or should tame the humor. He spoke.

    "Sorry if that laugh was off. I can be a dickhead."

    She didn't say a thing. He continued. 

    "Nope. I only have one 32 pages and a 64 pages. Haven't been traveling a lot."

    "Wait. You meant, you've travelled more than 65 times?"

    He chuckled. He loved the pitch in her voice at that moment. There was a peace to it. Twas soothing and refreshing. 

     "Somehow. Enough of me, how are your neighbors?"

     She bursted out laughing. She laughed for as long as possible. He didn't intrude. He only observed. He was looking at his wrist watch. His stop watch. She kept laughing. 

    She had laughed for 19 seconds. When she stopped, she felt light. He could feel it in her breath. And if she felt light, that meant she felt good. 

     By extension, that meant that she wasn't mad at herself. Then why was he mad at himself? Why was he always tough on himself. 

    Twasnt the question of him at the moment. He should concentrate. 

      "Could you believe that Tracia actually packed her luggages yesternight and wanted to come over to my place. She said she wanted to live with me for a while. She had in her plans to hang out with Stanley couple times and act as though she was dating him or me, just to taunt Luke. She didn't care whether she would seem lesbian or not, didn't matter to her."

    She stopped talking. Okay! He got it. Twas funny. But twasn't that funny. Like 19-seconds-laughing funny. 

    If something as such could be that funny to her, that meant one thing: she was very flexible and kinda light, and could be easily amused. 

    That somehow meant that twould be quite easy for him to make her laugh. That was a plus. He was always looking at the bright slide. 

    He chuckled. That was for real though but it seemed late. He spoke,

     "What'd you tell her? You think that was a nice idea. Like is she with you there."

    She chuckled and seemed not to be there. He spoke over the phone again,

     "Hon, are you there?"

      There was like a five seconds break and then she was back.