Lying on the nightstand, her phone starts clamoring. She stirs and presses the button to silence it, but the sound refuses to quit. It echoes throughout the house, diminishing but a fraction each time. It’s like that part of “Shout” by the Isley Brothers where everyone gets into the song and is dancing and twisting and getting a little bit lower now and singing “a little bit softer now” but without the joy. She scrambles through the house. When she gets to the sofa she grabs a decorative pillow and smothers the phone with it but the sound still reverberates. She crumples onto the sofa and turns the pillow on her ear.