Severed Connection

The cable dangling from the palm tree had been cut clean through.

Mark stared at it from his lounge chair, gin and tonic sweating onto the teak table beside him. The resort's wifi was down. Again. His phone showed zero bars, a rare mercy.

"They'll call when they're ready," Elena said, not looking up from her paperback. She'd said variations of this for three days.

The pool shimmered turquoise in the Dominican heat, laughing children cannonballing off the far edge. Mark watched them without seeing, his mind still in the Monday morning meeting he'd flown out of. The restructuring. The polite corporate language about "streamlining" and "strategic realignment."

His dog, Buster, was back in Chicago. The kennel had called yesterday — emergency vet visit, possible intestinal blockage. Mark had authorized the surgery over a spotty Facetime connection, watching the blue resolution freeze and pixelate as he agreed to pay three thousand dollars he might not have next month.

"The surgery went fine," Elena had told him that morning, checking her own phone which still worked. "Kennel texted. He's recovering."

Mark hadn't known she'd checked. He'd been too busy staring at the severed cable.

"We should talk," he said now.

"About Buster?"

"About everything."

She dog-eared her page — something she never did — and set the book down. Her eyes, the exact color of the pool water, met his. "The package includes couples counseling. Three sessions."

"You looked that up?"

"I've had signal," she said softly. "I've been reading your email."

The children screamed with joy, hitting the water. Somewhere in the distance, a phone began ringing. The sound grew closer — a pool attendant carrying a cordless handset, walking toward Mark.

"Mr.?

He didn't move.

The attendant kept coming, the phone's jingle cutting through the humid air. Behind him, the severed cable swung in the breeze, brushing the palm trunk like a pendulum marking time.

Mark stood up. He didn't take the phone.

"Tell them I'll be back Monday," he said, and walked toward the water. "Tell them I'm in a meeting."