The clock ticked and tocked, hour by hours.  The second hand moved and then again, and again, and again.  The soft ticking of the clock now filled the room with an echo.  Tick, tick,tick.  Tock, tock,tock.  The sound bounced off the walls and to the other, and the back.  The sound was slowly moving from a simple ticking of the time passing by to a dreadful reminder of how much time had passed already.  Seconds.  Minutes.  Hours.  It all passed far too slowly and without a single bit of good news to go with it. 

"He's still not home" muttered Rebecca, as sat at the kitchen table, staring at the clock.  Her eyes were following the second hand almost obsessively, without fail.  Her face was pale and her body tired and weary.  But, as the hours went by, again and again, she couldn't make herself move from where she was.  She just sat by a clock, in clear view of the front door, waiting moment after moment.  Minute after minute.  Hour after hour. 

She had been sitting there for several hours.  She came home, worried about me, and wanted to see and greet me the moment I got home.  Her own stress had risen to new heights that day and she wished to see me in the hopes her worries really were just hallucinations.  She was prepared to apologize for the trouble and the stress she had sent to me.  However, she didn't get a chance to apologize, because I never came home that night. 

Her phone softly rang as a text message came through.  Her eyes didn't even notice it for several minutes, still focused and staring at the clock.  Eventually, her senses came back and she saw a message from her boss.  It read:

"Are you sure you can't come in today?  We could really use the extra help"

Her eyes studied the two statements for almost an hour before she finally moved her hands to respond.  She was sure of her decision.  It was the right one.  It was the emotional one, but the right one. 

"I need this.  Please understand"

As the phone whistled as the message sent, a tear began to slowly drop down her face.  She blinked, and more made streams from her eyelids all the way down to her chin.  She stared off into space as she allowed them to run down and tickle her cheek.  One after another, they came down again and again and again.  She stared downward and clenched her fists together, them shaking as she tried to hold in her frustration. 

There had never been a day before that I just didn’t show up at home.  Rebecca knew that.  If there was something wrong, I always called her to let her know, normally resulting in her coming to me to take me home, herself.  But this day, she had something unexpected.  No contact at all.  No emails.  No texts.  No calls.  Just nothing.  Putting that on top of the stress she was already under must have really put pressure on her. 

She picked her phone up and dialed my number, but it immediately went to voicemail, meaning my phone wasn’t turned on.  She waited for the tone to come up to leave a message and tried to speak.  She tried for several minutes but nothing came out.  After the message timed out and the call disconnected, she just set the phone down and more tears began running down her face.  Before long, it had moved beyond that as she clenched her right hand into a fist and slammed it down into the kitchen table in a fit of rage. 

Her fist hit, and then again, and again.  The dangling wine glasses got jostled around with every hit.  Slam.  Slam.  Slam.  She did it again and again, as if it would never end.  It would never stop.  When she finally did, she picked up her now-red hand and walked to the door.  As she peeked out the window, she could see the sun beginning to rise.  It had been more than 24 hours past when I would normally arrive home. 

Rebecca looked out into the streets, hopeful that she’ll see me coming towards the door.  But, I wasn’t there.  Just like I wasn’t there a day before.  It didn’t take long for her to start slamming her fist on the door again and again, screaming at the top of her lungs.  All of this stress was too much for her to handle.  As she wore out her lungs, she slid down to the ground, gushing tears and shaking. 

“Wherever you are…please…please be safe….and come home to me….”