Wait For Us

Wait for Us

One year ago, all the rich people disappeared.

We never figured out exactly how they left. There was no sign of struggle. They might drive to San Francisco, fly to New York, and then somehow rent a car in Mexico two days later. Shortly after, they would disappear from all public records and never be seen again.

It was always like this. It was always a mystery no one could solve. I don't know how they managed to do it, but I guess it wasn't so hard to believe.

After all, they were rich.

Present Day

Today I woke up at Kyle's house. I used Kyle's bathroom, cooked in Kyle's kitchen, watered Kyle's plants. I kept things exactly as they were when Kyle was here.

Only he wasn't.

Early Sunday morning. Calm and tranquil, as Sundays often were. The house was up on a hill and the view was really something. You could see the beach, you could see downtown, you could see the coast. I could understand exactly why he picked this house.

I heard knocking at the door...unexpected, but not unusual. It probably wasn't someone I wanted to see, but it was probably important. I walked to the door and looked through the peephole. The man I saw was holding a clipboard and wearing a "Government Volunteer" hat. I opened the door out of obligation.

"Hello, Mr. Chang!" he said cheerfully.

"You can call me Dan."

"Okay, Dan." He glanced over my shoulder at the inside of Kyle's house. "How are you today?"

"Great. Yourself?"

"Good."

A pause.

"Do you have a moment?"

"I guess."

"I'd like to ask you some questions." He started to scribble something on his clipboard.

"Does Kyle still live here?" he asked.

"Yes."

"When's the last time you saw him?"

"About a year ago."

"Ah, so he doesn't live here anymore."

"Yes, he does. He's coming back."

"How can you be sure?"

"I just know he's coming back."

A pause.

"Are you currently living here?"

"Yeah. I plan to move out as soon as he gets back. Until then, I'm watching the house."

He suddenly looked a little uncomfortable. "Alright, that's all I wanted to know. Thank you for your time." He walked away, but looked back at Kyle's house as he went.

I suddenly felt lonely. I called up my friend, Ryan, and we agreed to get pho for lunch.

Kyle and I had been roommates in every year of college. At first we didn't click, but we hit it off as soon as we started drinking together.

On Saturday nights, we would get wasted. On Sunday mornings, we would get pho. It

was like a tradition.

Ryan drove us out to a new place. We just talked about simple things at first, but pretty soon I said what was on my mind.

"I think they want to take Kyle's stuff," I said.

Ryan didn't look surprised. "Yeah, we knew that this was going to happen. We talked about it, remember?"

"I was just throwing out the idea...I didn't think it would actually happen. I really don't want them to take it."

"Why, do you need it? They'll probably let you keep the house, along with all of your own stuff. So you'll be fine."

"It's not theirs, though. It's Kyle's."

He nodded and took a sip of water. "True, but Kyle never made it a point to take any of the stuff himself. So I don't think he cared."

"Why are you referring to him in the past tense?"

"Cares. I don't think he cares."

"Look...do you see where I'm coming from, though? If there's any chance that Kyle is coming back, I want things to be just as he left them."

"You sound upset."

"I am upset."

"We should go bowling," he said.

"Why?"

"Whenever I'm upset, I like to go bowling."

We got in for $3 each, minus the shoes. It used to cost more, but the bowling chain was owned by someone who had disappeared and the new owner had better prices in mind. Since then, the place was always packed.

The current score was 85 to 37, Ryan's favor. Ryan was up. He got eight pins down, then walked back around to confirm his score.

"So...what are you thinking about?" asked Ryan.

"Oh...I don't know."

He nodded as the score updated and walked back.

"Well, I've been thinking," he said, waiting for his ball to return.

"Yeah?"

"After all the rich people vanished...why wasn't there more of a reaction?"

"What do you mean?"

He took his second throw, but missed both remaining pins. "Rich people all disappear, no questions asked. The government is mostly made up of rich people, but the ones that remain take it from there. Didn't you expect more to happen?"

He walked back and sat down. My turn.

"Well, if the government tells you to do something, you do it." I ran up and took a quick, poorly-executed throw. Gutter.

"...you don't argue with them, and you definitely don't question their decisions."

I prepared to take another throw when Ryan spoke. "That's true, but here's what I think: We wanted them to come back. Imagine you're a minor, and your parents leave. What would you do?"

I threw a ball without taking a running start, just to see what would happen. This time, I hit six pins. "I would invite all my friends over and have a party."

"Then what?"

"I would clean up so my parents wouldn't find out."

"Exactly," he said. "You'd want them to come back."

We switched places again. This time, he got a strike.

"So you're saying it's like parents leaving their children, just because they're tired of them? That doesn't make any sense."

He nodded. "You're right, it doesn't."

After the game, Ryan and I went out to eat. We picked a semi-fancy steakhouse nearby. It was a late hour and there weren't many people.

"What was the cutoff, again?" I asked. "Ten million? Twenty million?"

"I think they said there wasn't a consistent cutoff. Remember that whole area of billionaires, the ones who didn't disappear? They interviewed them, and they were just as confused as the rest of us."

"That's right. What about the other way? Did anyone who wasn't that rich disappear?"
"Yeah," he said, "my boss. He was kind of rich, but not that much. I still remember that day, the first day everyone was gone."

"What about it?"

"My boss wasn't there, and it was just...surreal. It was as if a weight were lifted from my shoulders."

"Yeah?"

"It was as if a giant stick had been pulled out of my ass."

"Anyway," he continued, "about Kyle...there was always something a little off about him."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like...why was he even there with us? He never told us he was rich. He was pretending to be like us, but he never was."

Eight Years Before

"Yeah, it's crazy," said Ryan, "I just...straight-up forgot to take the final."

We were standing outside the science lecture hall, waiting for Kyle to get out. He was just about to finish his last exam, and we were going to celebrate.

"You forgot to go to a final?" I asked, taken aback. "How can you forget to go to a final?"

"Well, it was at 8 AM. I'd studied a lot the night before, went to bed at four, and then I just slept right through it."

"Can you retake it?"

"Of course not."

"I meant the class."

"Oh yeah. I'm going to have to, now."

Kyle appeared, much to our surprise. He must have finished his test early because it was supposed to take him another thirty minutes.

"Hey guys," he said, "what's up?"

"Ryan was just telling me he forgot to take his final."

Kyle burst out laughing. "Wow. Nice one."

"C'mon...imagine how this feels for me," said Ryan.

"I'm only joking. Drink it off tonight."

"You found something?" I asked.

"Of course. I have a friend who's a fraternity president, and he said I could bring whoever I wanted."

"What time is it?"

"10."

"What do you want to do before that?"

"Sushi or pho. Your pick."

The house was so packed that they had to set up a sound system outside. A lot of people went there to dance, Ryan included. Kyle and I migrated around the house. He seemed to know everyone, and was always eager to introduce me to people.

Still, for some reason I didn't really feel like drinking that night. I went to the bathroom, marked my arm six times with a permanent marker, and then walked around aimlessly for a while. I spent the rest of the night sipping Sprite and watching beer pong before Kyle found me again.

"Hey Dan. Do you want to go?"

I was surprised because it seemed like he was having a good time. "Yeah, I do. But do you want to go?"

"Yeah, let's get out of here."

"What about Ryan?"

"He's too drunk. Someone is driving him."

It was a long walk back to our apartment. I wondered if he would realize the hashmarks on my arm were fake. Then I realized that he was walking in a completely straight line.

"Hey Dan," he said, three blocks in, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"I'm don't think I'm happy anymore."

Three houses passed before I responded. "Really? But it seems like you have everything figured out. Why would you not be happy?"

"I'm just not. Things haven't felt the way they should. Sometimes I just get really depressed."

Another four houses passed.

"Then you should cry."

"What?"

"When I'm feeling really bad, I set a timer for fifteen minutes and I just cry. Usually, it helps."

I thought he'd be skeptical, but he actually looked...grateful.

"Thanks. I'll give that a try and let you know how it goes."

Present Day

I got a letter two weeks later, just as I feared. This was always Kyle's house, never my house...they'd figured it out. There were no records of his existence, so Kyle's stuff was no longer Kyle's stuff. They'd come to take it away.

I had another meal with Ryan, and he repeated things that he'd already said. Get over Kyle. Kyle left us, not the other way around. But I still didn't believe it. I felt like we were to blame, even though I couldn't explain why.

For the next two weeks I looked for Kyle. I checked the park, the bar, the lake...all the places he used to like going to. I checked the house for secret passages, just in case he was hiding somewhere. But no. No Kyle in sight.

The reason I lived here was because Kyle had let me. Out of college, I got a high-paying job I didn't like and got sick of it. I spent two years at a sandwich shop, and I actually enjoyed it. Then a Subways moved in next door, and that was that.

Kyle helped me. He said I could stay until I got back on my feet. He said it would be great, like old times. And that's how it went for a while.

Then he disappeared, just like the rest of them.

No one figured out where the rich people went. We all waited in fear, asking questions, searching for answers. We kept worrying that a meteor would crash or the world would end, but it never did. So they started a system.

In each vacant location, they would scour the houses and strip them bare, like a carcass. Everyone would come...neighbors, ex-friends...everyone. It was like looting, without the danger.

Everyone in the immediate area showed up. I put my own stuff in a room and locked the door, as instructed. And then they came. They didn't ask me anything. They didn't look my way. They just got to work.

I stood and watched as they took everything Kyle once had. Kyle's TV. Kyle's tables. Kyle's xBox...everything picked up so methodically. It's like they were movers, only they weren't.

Before I was left to myself, the government volunteer greeted me. He thanked me for my cooperation, then added one thing.

"There's going to be some people moving in here. I hope you're okay with that."

I was annoyed, but I can't say I was surprised.

I felt okay at first, but the walls looked so bare.

I felt alright at first, but then I realized they had taken everything. Kyle's pictures, Kyle's books...everything.

I got drunk that night because at least some of the alcohol was mine. I woke up the next morning, dazed and slightly hungover. I drank three cups of water and then checked my messages.

Ryan wrote, Hey Dan. I heard about what happened. Are you okay?

And I wrote, I'm fine. I just really miss my friend.