“Hello?” I croaked.

I cleared my throat, coughed, and then tried to speak again, “Hello?”

“Alvin!? Where the heck are you, man?”

I knew straightaway that it was my friend Meek; the exuberant tenor of his voice gave him away.

I again cleared my throat, ran my hand through my hair, and queried, “Meek?”

Meek sounded alarmed, “You should have been here half an hour ago!”

“What?” What are you ta…” I started to ask as I glanced at the alarm clock and saw that it read 5:43.

“Hold on.” I rumbled and pounded on the clock.

It shortly flashed 8:43 before making a sparking sound and wholly dying.

“Oh, no!” I shouted as I bounded out of bed and began to desperately pull off my pajama top while still holding the phone to my ear.