Sometimes I try mid-afternoon.

TIME WITH FRIEDA BY ARLENE ANG 34TH PARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 03

+

Sometimes I try mid-afternoon.

The phone moves into place by itself

+

in my hand. I realize

I hardly know her daily schedule.

+

When she comes through,

it's not even her voice

+

on the answering machine.

Sam, from next door, says

+

it's so strangers can't tell

there's a woman

+

in the house living

alone. Had she called me instead,

+

I wouldn't have known

what to say. In the end,

+

someone from the hospital called.

Sometimes when I recall

+

her face in the morgue,

I tense with the awareness

+

that she's about to speak up.

And sometimes

+

I stop myself in mid-call.

I listen to the dial tone,

+

hypnotized into missing

a number I hardly ever used.