When Eason Chalmers returned to the audience, in just a short time, Mr. Lucas and the others had already started dancing closely with a few pretty girls, chatting away to the music.
Mrs. Miller, who was without a dance partner, stood aside looking beautiful on her own. Seeing Eason return, she quipped as usual, "Mr. Chalmers, did you go to meet an old flame?"
"Yeah," Eason replied, then lowered his gaze to the newly added number on his phone contacts.
This was Alice Yates' new number; the old one had long been out of use, and before she changed it, they didn't stay in contact, so when he tried to call, he heard it was an unassigned number.
Looking at this string of digits, memories drifted back to many years ago.
That summer, the sound of cicadas, by the school's fence.
She was holding a book, seated under the tree's shade, lifting her eyes to look at him climbing over the fence.
