The part she had time for

The reminder appeared at five past eight.

I had been watching the time, so it did not remind me of anything. It only gave me the instruction I had written the night before.

Call.

I called her.

She answered after the second ring.

“I have ten minutes,” she said.

“I know.”

“Okay. What happened?”

The car was still where I had parked it. The repair message had not changed. The file from work was finished. Those facts had been true the night before, when I decided they were not the price of asking for her time.

They were not more useful now that I had it.

“Nothing happened,” I said. “How was your day?”

She was quiet long enough that I checked the screen to make sure the call had not ended.

“The whole day?” she asked.

“Whatever part you have time for.”

She started near the end. A few sentences later, she went back because something earlier mattered. I asked one question and learned that I had the order wrong. She began that part again.

I am not going to copy it here. She told it to me, not to the notebook.

When she said she had to go, she was still in the middle of it. She finished the sentence, but not the story.

“Okay,” I said.

We ended the call.

The reminder was still on the screen. I cleared it and did not make one for the next time.