Derrick was awoken by the sound of his phone ringing. Still in a state of grogginess, he was confused at first, not used to hearing the annoying chirp of his landline. His business did not know the number of his landline (except for his personal assistant), so Derrick assumed that it was a personal call.

He reached to the bedside table and picked up the phone. His digital clock read 10:32am.

"Hello?" he croaked.

"Hello, Derrick, is that you?"

"Yes it is. Who is this?"

"It's your aunt Helen... do you remember me?"

Aunt Helen. Jesus I haven't talked to Helen in years.

"Of course I remember. It's been quite a while, hasn't it?"

"Yes, Derrick, it has. How have you been keeping?" Her voice was high and chirpy – this caused Derrick to remember how he found most of her tendencies to be particularly annoying.

"I've been alright, Helen," he said. "Can I ask why you're calling?"

"Oh yes, my apologies," she laughed. "Well, you see, it's your grandmother's eighty-fifth Christmas this year, and I fear it might be her last, due to her medical conditions. And a few days ago, she mentioned you, and I couldn't help to regret not keeping in contact with you over the past years…"

What about not keeping in touch with me my entire life? Derrick thought sourly. He considered hanging up.

"… and I thought to myself 'why don't I invite him over so we can all catch up?' So I would like to ask you: would come to the Family Christmas dinner this year?"

Derrick took the next pause to digest the question. Immediately, he felt like yelling a "No" into the receiver, followed by a streamline of angry comments and questions about her absence in his life. But, deep down, Derrick had a yearning to see his long lost family – he assumed it was because of his lasting loneliness (as Lisa had highlighted for him the evening before).

Lisa. I wonder if she's still here. His heart thumped.

"Derrick?" his aunt's voice was unsure.

"Err... sorry Helen," he stumbled. "Yes, that sounds like a great idea. When is it?"

She squealed with delight and began giving Derrick all the details. As he fumbled for a pen and paper, Derrick felt an unusual pressure lift from his shoulders – it was as if his aunt's unusual invitation was a declaration of love and expectance; two things he had been yearning unknowingly for many years.

"I'm so glad your coming," she said finally, "I know we live quite the drive away, but I promise it'll be fun!"

"Okay, Helen, thanks for the invitation."

"Call me Aunt Helen, dear."

Derrick paused. "Well I'll see you soon then."

They exchanged goodbyes and Derrick hung up the phone. He looked at the piece of paper with the frantic scrawl, and he wondered that if it was guilt that caused his Aunt and Grandmother to wish to see him. He wouldn't be sure until he finally showed up at their door.

Suddenly Derrick heard his front door click shut. It was a heavy door, so he wasn't surprised that he heard it immediately from his bedroom.

It's Lisa. She's leaving.

"No!" he said out loud, and rolled off his bed, trapped in his bed sheets. He threw the twisted sheets off of his body and began to bolt to the door, until he realized he was missing pants.

"Shit, shit, shit," he growled as he grabbed pants from the floor and franticly attempted to pull them up. He hopped to the door and peaked through, making sure Lisa wasn't hiding in the living room. She wasn't. The jacket and clothes that he had giving her the night before were draped over the back of his leather couch. She was definitely gone.

No! I didn't get to speak with her again! Derrick's thoughts were racing. Hallway; she might still be in the hallway. He finished buttoning his pants and bolted through the living room and kitchen, finally grabbing the door handle in the foyer and swinging it open.

Empty. Evidently, she had already caught the elevator and was on her way down. Derrick knew that, although he really wanted to peruse her, running through the lobby without shoes and a ratty tee shirt would not go over well. Well, not in this kind of building, anyways.

While closing the door and admitting defeat, Derrick's heart filled with despair. He hadn't realized that losing her would hurt this much. She was mysterious and unusually distant, and yet Derrick felt he had connected with Lisa on some level during their brief conversation – it was as if this strange and beautiful woman could peer directly into his soul, and then draw its similarities with her own. He didn't know if he would ever see her again. She was like an eclipse on the cusp of fading, and Derrick only showed up in time to see it blink away. Derrick walked into the living room and slumped on the couch.

A piece of paper fell onto the seat next to him. It seemed to have been placed atop of the clothes that Lisa had worn.

He grabbed it. And realized it was from Lisa:

"Derrick. Thank you for everything. I wish I could be the friend you seek. Eventually, I will give you back your Tee-shirt."

He read the choppy message several times over before analyzing it. She's saying she'll eventually come back. Yet, she's also saying that she can't be the companionship I desire. Derrick's sadness didn't lessen. Folding the note carefully and putting it in his pocket, he looked at the pile of clothes and saw that his shirt he gave Lisa last night was indeed gone. He hoped to God she would come to give it back.

***

It is here, dear readers, that we leave our melancholy Derrick to simmer in his dark thoughts. For unlike Derrick, we have the ability to ride the waves of time at our own expense. We may chose to speed ahead, or fall in to the past – but our leading man cannot. Derrick will spend the next month carefully considering his encounter with Lisa (after a brief mourning period, of course), while we (as readers) choose to speed ahead to his second encounter with Lisa.

And while the snow begins to fall in Derrick's world, and The City becomes bitter from Jack Frost's icy kiss, Derrick is kept alive by his thoughts – which anticipate both Lisa's return and his long-lost family reunion.

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