It was almost nighttime, and soon the lights in the city were glowing brightly. A black owl stood on a thick tree branch as it stared down rows and rows of neighborhoods and shopping districts. Its eyes lingered on a building before taking off into the gray sky.

Joy and Wendy were munching on the delicious pork ribs, neither speaking for several minutes. Wendy then looked up at Joy.

“These are really, really good!” she exclaimed. “This has to be the best restaurant I’ve ever been to. The cooking is great, but my mom will always be the best cook for me!” Wendy giggled as she whispered the second part.

“I agree!” Joy laughed as well. They continued deliciously eating their food and soon forgot about the important topic Wendy wanted to talk about.

Soon, the time was 8 o’clock. Wendy and Joy were shopping in one of the huge department stores when Joy finally remembered.

“So back to our original subject, what was it you wanted to tell me?” she asked again. They both sat down on one of the benches outside.

“Needed, not wanted to. Anyway, it has to do with what happened last week,” Wendy kept fiddling with her hands as she spoke. Her phone suddenly rang. She paused. Reaching down into her purse, she looked at Joy with a confused expression. She picked up the phone and nervously answered. The color suddenly drained from Wendy’s face as she immediately hung up and threw her phone back into her purse.

“I--I have to go.” Wendy grabbed her purse and her coat as she started to panic.

Joy stood up and grabbed Wendy’s arm. “Hold on! What’s going on? Who was it? You still haven’t told me what the thing was!” she was extremely worried.

“It isn’t as important as I thought it was.” was all Wendy could muster from her dry throat. “D-don’t worry about it!” her voice shook and she dashed out of the restaurant. Joy sat back down and sighed. What had just happened? She watched as Wendy scurried away, like a mouse running from a cat. Joy was extremely worried and couldn’t help but feel uneasy as she thought about why Wendy wanted to leave so fast.

Ten o’clock had struck, and Joy was soon on her way home. She was still confused about Wendy’s sudden departure. She stuck her keys into the lock of the door and walked in. Immediately, she face-planted the couch and stayed there. Joy twisted her head and stared at the T.V. screen, eyes slowly getting heavier and heavier. She was extremely exhausted, even though all she did was eat and talk. Just a simple day would tire her out so quickly nowadays, and she was not sure why. Either way, she seemed to be healthy so it didn’t really bother her too much. Before she fell into a deep slumber, however, she remembered that there was a mysterious planner still waiting for her to be opened. She pushed up from the couch with a grunt and dragged her feet while walking to her bedroom.

Joy grabbed the planner and lied down on her bed. She inspected it closely again, looking for any clues. Not that she was a detective, she just enjoyed pretending from time to time. There were definitely traces of wear on the corners, as checked before, so she stopped staring at it. She opened it, expecting it to see scribbles over the dates. But it was empty. In confusion, she flipped through every single page and noticed that the second week of August had been ripped out. Strange. She continued flipping and suddenly noticed the entirety of May had been filled in with appointments and reminders.

August 1: Meet at Halley Park 2:00 am

Joy looked over at her wall calendar. April 30. It was at this exact moment that Joy thought it was a very reasonable decision to go out and meet whoever the owner of the planner was planning to meet.