Someone Joined the Group Chat
horror◐ TeenEveryone was typing and deleting, typing and deleting. So I just asked. Me: "who are you" The reply came fast. Like it had been waiting for me specifically. "You know me." Me: "no i don't" It sent a second photo. My seventh birthday party, in our old kitchen. I remember that cake. There's a man standing behind seven-year-old me. I have never seen him before in my life.
I sent the photo to Mom. Private chat. Just her. Me: "who is this man" No answer for five minutes. Then she called me. An actual phone call, from the next room over. Her voice was too calm. The voice she used when Grandpa died. "Where did you get that picture?" Me: "it's in the chat. mom. WHO IS HE" "Sweetheart, there was no man at that party. But that is exactly what your dad's father looked like." "He died before you were born."
What happens next?
2 ways forwardMom made everyone come to the kitchen. Phones face up on the table, like a weird séance. Dad looked at the photo for a long time without talking. "That's my father," he said. "That's his watch. I buried him wearing that watch." All five phones buzzed at once, right there on the table. The gray circle: "It still works. Listen." And from upstairs, faint but real: tick. tick. tick.