Goodbye, Mr. Regret

Back at the hotel, she switched her phone to silent mode.

Tomorrow was her advisor's exhibition.

She wanted to be well-rested for it.

At noon, Timothy's eyes snapped open, and he immediately sat up in bed.

Sheila grabbed his arm, her voice urgent. "Timothy, what are you doing? You need to rest-lie down."

Timothy turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

"I went to the hospital this morning and saw Secretary Allen with Henry. When I asked, he told me you'd arrived in the city late last night. Then the hospital called -they said you'd been found unconscious out on the street by the rescue team. Timothy, do you realize how dangerous that was? With all that flooding last night, if they'd gotten to you any later..."

The thought alone made Sheila shudder. Someone unconscious, lying in water for too long-it could have been fatal.

"Timothy, the weather was awful last night. All flights were grounded. What could possibly be so urgent that you had to travel here overnight?"

"Where's my phone?"

a brand-new phone

card and put it in someone else's phone just to reach me. Timothy, do you have any idea how scared you made

ignoring her concerns,

call rang out, unanswered, and

Hospital-Timothy swung

him. "Timothy, where are you going? The doctor said you need to take it

determined strides down

all the way to Capital City...

city center was closed off because of severe flooding. Timothy had waded through

hospital bed. The doctor explained that the rescue team found him after he'd fallen into an open manhole-one of the covers had been swept away by the flood-and that's

always so meticulous and clean, had

that

had already disappeared into

just as it hit the first

he sped off toward the