.

Missing

 

I did the usual pat down my itchy white jacket to see if my mom’s phone was there, and all I could hear was the crinkling sound of various types of candy wrappers. It was gone. I felt like someone was pouring a bucket of guilt on me, for my friends and my mom. Where could of it gone? We have been to countless houses, all with somewhat large yards. Even worse, there is no password to get in, so any stranger could simply look at all of her contacts/accounts. I knew candy was not the only thing I would be looking for that night…

On Halloween last year I was headed to my friend John’s house. We planned to get there as early as possible, which in doing so equaled more candy. Unfortunately Halloween was on a Monday which limited how late we could stay up. I was, and still am one of those weird people without a phone, as I value my other interests for other gifts over a phone. Because of this I took my moms phone, just in case that I did not get dragged into the woods by the “killer clowns” or poisoned by someone who saved their leftover candy from last year. Because the 2016 election was coming to an end I decided to be Hillary. I printed out a mask online and used a broken rubber band as the head strap. It turned out to be pretty creepy, as I cut out the eyes too small. I also put on an old white jacket, looking similar to something that she would wear. I knew my pockets were going to fill up fast with flashlights and other random things along the way, so I decided to put the phone in the jacket pocket. Big mistake. I did not realize this at the time but the side of the pocket had a huge hole in it, the perfect size to slip a phone through. That hole was like a timebomb ready for the phone to fall out at any moment.

Together as a group we walked down the road, house by house. Most homes were not even ready yet as we left around five. My bag slowly started to put more strain on my arm by the minute. We continued to walk on the cold and dark streets with the distant sounds of other groups and parties. I was also doing routine phone checks because I knew I had the chance to lose it. This is when it happened. We were at a house with one light on and no decorations. How strange I thought. Then shortly after I went to go feel my pocket, and there was no bump. I said to someone, “Oh my god, the phone is gone.”

“Seriously?”, John said.

“Yeah”

I had everyone check their bags to make sure it had not gone in there by accident. Everyone double checked, it was gone for sure. I began panicking. We had gone to countless homes. And the last time I checked to see if it was still there must of been an hour ago. It began to rain and I swear it got 10 degrees colder. I called my dad on another phone to see if he could tell me where it was from the Find My iPhone app. But instead a man with an very heavy Asian accent picked up. I could not tell who it was right away.

“Hello?”, he spoke.

“Hey umm Dad I kind of.”

“Hello?” The man repeated.

“I’m sorry I think you have the wrong number”, he responded.

I later called my dad on the correct number and telling him what happened. To my surprise he was not that upset. He also sent me screenshots of where the location was. I was worried that someone had found it, or the owners took it inside.

Later after studying the screenshot we realized it was on the same road as we were, 7 houses down. I bolted down the dark road as fast as I could to the house. I had no sense of how fast I was running because I could only see the dim lights in the distance, it felt weird as if I was moving still. Quickly I got to the house, and an old woman came out thinking that we were here for candy. I tried to say to her that I lost a phone, but she did not really understand what I meant. We continued to search the yard, I was so nervous we got the wrong house, or someone took it. I did not see it at all. But as I was walking to the next house, I hear John yell “I GOT IT”. I was so thankful that we actually found it and I did not have to go through the process of getting a new one or trying to keep on looking later in the night.

The main reason why I thought it fell out is because I was rolling down a few hills, not because of the broken pocket. If John did not take it and put it back in his backpack after I found it, the whole thing would’ve happened again. Now I know that before you try on a new jacket, check to make sure that there are no holes in it.