"Yes, hello, Krara? Sorry to wake you."
"Oh, no problem," replied Krara drearily on the other end of the line. Jack stood at a phone kiosk on the second floor of a large mall complex. Beside him stood two others. He was feeling unusually flippant on this occasion.
"Ok, here's a joke," began Jack. He was hoping that a bit of humor might dig him out from the mood deficit he'd caused by waking her up.
He got to the lame punchline and there was a short silence.
"Not funny," said Krara curtly before hanging up.
"Yeah, I could've told ya," offered the girl next to him.
"Too bad, too," lamented Jack. "I've been trying to figure out what to do with my life, and I was hoping she might know...you don't know, do you?"
The girl flashed a slight smile that illuminated her eyes and gave a long look at Jack, completely undoing him.
"No, I don't."
