R U O K?

Dear Jenny,

Are you OK? I was expecting to see you on Friday but you never showed. I was rather surprised. Don't worry - it's not a problem. I was just a little anxious. Let me know you're OK?

Love,

A
XXX

Out of Office Auto Reply: I will be out of the office from 25th September and I will not return until 4th October. Any urgent queries can be directed to my colleagues.


RUOK? Sent email 2 Ur add, auto-reply. Worried coz U no show last Fri. Let me no UOK?

-----

I didn't hear from her for a week, for a fortnight. I began emailing friends: have you heard from her? When did you last see her? Did she seem OK? Are you aware of any problems? Any crises?

Their responses were upbeat, puzzling. They had seen her "relatively recently"; "not so long ago": she seemed fine. In fact, if anything she seemed happier than she had been in a long, long time. Her job was going well, she had almost paid off her mortgage. Life was good.

As the days turned to weeks and the weeks to months, we her friends became seriously concerned. Nobody had her parents' address. We didn't even know where they were, only that they lived in Switzerland somewhere. Emails and messages began flying around with increasingly desperate and wild suggestions: should we get the police involved? Go to Switzerland and track down her parents?

We had written to her, camped out on her doorstep, emailed, phoned; some of the more adventurous among us had even tried to break in. All to no avail.

And then, almost half a year later, an envelope dropped onto my doormat one morning.

Getting married. Come?