2c.

Late in the afternoon, when L. had still not come back from school, H. became concerned. He paced around the two rooms of his small apartment muttering to himself, removing his glasses from his face every few moments to wipe the lenses, and arranging and rearranging the cans of soup in the cabinets, the three activities which, not including the drink (in which he occasionally partook), when especially nervous, H. found himself uncontrollably carrying out. After close to an hour, when his glasses were becoming scratched and his soup cans were spaced exactly three quarters of an inch apart from one another, he placed a call to his sister.

S. picked up the only phone in her house after allowing it to ring a few times. "Hello?" she asked.

"Have you heard from L.? She hasn't come home from school yet."

"She's at Mom's. She told me not to tell you."

H. remained silent for a few seconds. "Okay, bye," he abruptly said, then hung up before S. had a chance to respond. He glanced at his watch, and thought to himself, "there wasn't much to do this afternoon anyway," and decided to take a trip to his mother's house.