A Day in the Life

11:00 PM; Westwood

The phone buzzed from her nightstand. As with any call after 10, Priya checked to see if it was somebody she could ignore before picking up.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Amy was uncharacteristically quiet. Priya could hear her breathing on the other end, but she followed up with, “Hello?” anyway.

Amy knew it was a stupid question before she asked it, but her mind was a wildfire of thoughts and feelings. “Would you hate me if I left again?”

Priya scoffed. “Bitch, please. I don’t need you; I’m married now.” Priya’s husband shot her a quizzical look; she mouthed, it’s Amy.

Amy was quiet again, and Priya started to get concerned. “When have you ever asked my permission to do anything?”

But Amy was already on her next thought. “Hey, do I seem different to you?”

“What do you mean?”

"Like, I don’t know… depressed or something. I just had a talk with my dad, and he seemed really worried about me. Said it was okay for me to take off again."

Oh man, this was a really important phone call. Priya sat up in bed.

"No, not depressed, exactly," She said slowly. "But I feel like you used to do a lot more stuff. Like, Amy Poford: Jetsetter, had way better stories than Amy Poford: Some Blonde Chick in LA."

Priya heard Amy laugh softly on the other end. "Yeah, I guess she did." There was a slight hesitation, then: "I kind of feel like it's time to get back on a plane."

Priya grinned. Nice work, Mr. P. "Cool. I think that's a great idea. Have you thought about where you're headed?"

"I don’t know. I haven’t been to South America yet, but I keep hearing that it’s not somewhere girls should travel alone to. I'm going to think about it some more."

"Okay. Keep me posted."

"I will. Thanks Priya. Sorry for calling so late. Love you."

"Love you too."

Priya ended the call and replaced her phone. She couldn't stop smiling. Her husband looked up from the papers he was reading. “What did she want?”

Priya settled in against her husband’s chest. Home. “Nothing. She’s moving back to Japan.”