Hana heard a long ringing tone that woke her up from her sleep. Her head was still aching as she opened her eyes. Her vision cleared up; she looked around in confusion. It was quite dark. A bit to the front, there was a bright light shining through a gap. She groggily walked to the hole and peered through. Lush greenery filled her eyes. The cawing of birds and scary noises of animals could be heard near and far.

She froze. [What the hell?]

[I just came out from 99!(1) What's going on here?! Is there something wrong with my vision??]

There's still four shopping bags on both of her hands, full to the brim. She threw them down in agitation.

She rubbed and rubbed her eyes, many many times until they turned slightly red.

When reality sets in, she trembled and anxiously took out her smartphone to check for the time and date. It's just 1.15 pm and the date was still the same. She looked for signals while dashing left and right. To her horror, her hopes were dashed ruthlessly!

She didn't gave up! She moved around some more and tried harder, covering every inch of the dark space. It's because she knew she need to let her hubby know. Their daughters were in the car when she went shopping just now! Although the engine was on and the window was opened a little to let in fresh air, if she's gone too long, they would be terrified.

Suddenly, when she was wondering around. The signal on her smartphone flickered! She stopped and immediately write a message. She sent both using LINE(2) and the traditional instant messaging to her hubby.

Mama:

"Ayang(3), emergency! I'm lost! Don't know where I am. I'm in front of 99 and now it's in the middle of a cave in some sort of forest. Kids in car in front of 99. Come home immediately to get them. Now"

When she saw 'read' appeared, she felt so relieved. She checked her traditional IM. The message failed to be delivered. It was unsent. She calmed down and try to sort her mind. Hana realized, the only spot she can send her messages was the location she appeared just now. It was a kind of node. It turned out, the signal was too choppy and weak, only a little bit of internet leaked through. Every time she tried to call out, the call failed due to the weak signal.

She was worried. It was because her internet was the prepaid type, is it still possible to top up here? If not she would only have about 20 days before the account go into passive mode. She waited in agitation for her hubby to reply. She knew he must be truly agitated and tried to return home as soon as possible.

....

Arash received a message while he was still finishing up the proposal on his desktop in the office. It's already lunch time but he stayed for a while to finish it up since it's almost done. He knew that the message would be from his wife. It's about time they reached home after fetching their eldest daughter from her kindergarten.

He glanced at the clock in his desktop and lifted up his brows. She must've went shopping a bit. If not they'll reached home before 1.00 pm. His wife always messaged him when she returned from somewhere everyday without fail. She said its a kind of a safety measures. He acquiesced his wife's tendencies since it did give him a peace of mind when he knew she's safe and sound when he's not around.

He swiped his smartphone gingerly and read it. Instead of the usual "Already at home niii(4). Having lunch with the kids" with an attached photo of their food or the cheeky smiling kids eating to make his mouth watered, it was a shocking, mind numbing one.

Mama:

"Ayang(3), emergency! I'm lost! Don't know where I am. I'm in front of 99 and now it's in the middle of a cave in some sort of forest. Kids in car in front of 99. Come home immediately to get them. Now"

He immediately tried to call Hana repeatedly but got out of coverage notifications every time. He believed this was not a joke as his wife will never play around on this issue. He made his mind to return as quickly as possible. He saved his work and dashed to the train station while messaging his boss for an emergency leave. His mind was already filled with questions on what could happened to his beloved wife, Hana.

Author's Note:

(1) 99 = There's a chain minimart in Malaysia which is called 99 Speedmart. People love going to these stores due to the wide distribution, convenient location and fair price.

(2) LINE = an online messaging app similar to Whatsapp under NAVER. It has cute stickers.

(3) Ayang [sound: are-young] = short form of 'sayang' which means 'love'. A pet name between Hana [sound: hnah] and Arash [sound: are-rush]

(4) niiii = a noise and expression usually added to the end of English sentence/question. It is to express the dragging of the sentence/question without the needing of a reply. Its a short form of 'ini' which means 'this'