An Excerpt from "The Missing"

By Eliza Victoria

THERE WERE ONLY six of them in the group, but several times during the trip in Thailand, Harold would think that they were missing one person. During dinner he would catch himself saying, Let's wait for – and then realize that there was no one left to wait for, as he counted his seated friends already digging into grilled fish and steamed rice at the sidewalk stall. One two three four five six.Inside Platinum Mall, as they made their way through hordes of fellow tourists buying scarves and cheap shoes, the sudden bursts of Filipino words (Mahal, Ang ganda o, Tawaran mo pa) causing both confusion and delight, one of his friends said, Meet you downstairs at closing time?, and Harold very nearly said, Okay, but we should tell—

One two three four five six.

There was no one to tell, but Harold felt the uneasiness nestling in his bones, the same disquiet that invaded him whenever he left his rundown Makati apartment in a rush: Did I leave the light on? Did I lock the gate properly? Did I unplug the computer?

Am I forgetting someone?

HE WASN'T SUPPOSED to be on this trip. He had already said no back in October, when his friends were still putting together the itinerary, trawling travel blogs and TripAdvisor comments and consequently bugging him online. They were friends he met back in high school. They went on to different courses and universities, and got updates on each other's lives only through the social networks and the once-in-a-blue-moon dinner or coffee. They still carried with them the clinginess of high school cliques, but now coupled with work schedules and good salaries. What do you mean, no? You have VLs left, don't you? It won't cost much, Harold, we'll stay at budget hotels. Come on Harold, I'm saving up for the wedding and this might be my last trip with you guys. Come on, Harold. Come on, come on.

You've been looking strangely sad these past few weeks. How about a change of pace? •

> Eliza Victoria is the author of the short story collection A Bottle of Storm Clouds and the poetry collection Apocalypses. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in several online and print publications in the Philippines and abroad, including Daily Science Fiction, Stone Telling, Room Magazine, Story Quarterly, The Pedestal Magazine, High Chair, and the Philippine Speculative Fiction anthologies. Her work has won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature and the Philippines Free Press Literary Award. Visit her at http://elizavictoria.com.