Empty Chats

At 9:07 pm, Arif’s phone vibrated for the sixty-third time that day, anda meme filled the screen.

- Misbah Dar

He smiled, since smiling had turned into habit rather than joy. Blue light washed his room from every side. His phone rested in his hand. His laptop stayed open on a video call that asked little of him. The television played a show he already knew by heart. Messages poured in from family groups, office chats, college friends, and people from the gym. Words flowed fast and endless, and still a hollow space sat inside him.Arif lived in a city that stayed awake. He lived in a building where walls stood close and voices stayed far. Each morning he rode smart city buses packed tight with strangers. Bodies touched, eyes stayed away, and evenings brought him back to the room where the phone car