Day #9, Possession – by Elizabeth Averay
I can’t believe she did it. She threw my phone out the window!
We’re on my parents’ private plane and she just snatches my phone out of my hands and casual-as-anything opens the tiny window and tosses it out. Never mind we’re thousands of feet in the air, or that it’s MY PHONE.
To my embarrassment I find myself screaming at her. My best friend. ‘What the fuck did you do that for?’ I run to the exit, forgetting we’re mid-flight, and try to open the door to go after my phone. Katie and a couple of crew members grab me and hold me down as I thrash around, trying to get away.
I’m not growling and grunting, making sounds like a wild beast, unable to speak of the grief I feel at the loss of my phone. The pain; it’s as if I’ve lost a part of myself.
A slap across the face and a voice, yelling, ‘Beth! SNAP OUT OF IT.’
I don’t respond. I’m in the foetal position, keening for my phone. It’s gone, lost, all alone! I can’t bring myself to even contemplate that it could be broken, or – worse – destroyed.
I spend the rest of the flight crying and screaming incoherently for my property.
It took months to find the perfect phone. I tried so many, but none were right – then at last I found it. It was a little shop that had all sorts in it with weird warning signs: ‘Buy at your own peril.’ ‘May cause unreasonable attachments to object.’ Ha! As if. The phone is/was perfect: easy to use, and it seemed to know what I wanted without me even touching it.
I would think of getting a dress, and it would come up with lists of dresses I would adore instantly. If I wanted to ring someone it would have already dialled the number for me. Wanted to order a gift? It would already be done and on its way.
It knew me better than I did. And it gave great advice. Even kept a schedule for me without me setting it up! It was fantastic. How will I manage now? It had all my numbers, addresses, birthdays, parties, anniversaries – everything in there. It had my social calendar, all my credit card details, bank details, bankcards, License, social media accounts…
I’m spiralling out of control mentally. My entire life has gone. Everything was on my phone! I can’t access anything – it’s. All. Gone.
Another slap in the face. ‘Beth, get over it! It was just a phone. I told you to keep backups – as in, hard copies. You shouldn’t rely on technology so much.’
Slowly raising my head I glare at my former BFF. Fingers twitching, eyes bulging, I scream out, ‘I WANT MY PRECIOUS!’
Oh, God. I’m turning into Gollum from The Lord of the Rings!
We’ve finally landed. I throw myself out of the plane and onto the tarmac. Spinning around, I spy what I need and, lurching forward, I run as fast as I can right into the spinning blades of a helicopter about to take off.
All for a phone.
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