The story
Last summer my phone fell into the sea.
I was on holiday, and the nearest shop was two hours away.
I decided to wait until I got home.
The first day was genuinely uncomfortable.
My hand kept reaching for a pocket that was empty.
I counted: I reached for it about forty times.
On the second day I got bored, and being bored was strange.
I could not remember the last time I had been bored.
On the third day I started noticing things.
The sound of the sea is different in the morning and the evening.
My friend has a habit of touching her ear when she is thinking.
I had known her for six years and had never seen it.
By the seventh day I did not want to fix the phone.
I did fix it, of course. But now I leave it in another room in the evening.