[ WP ] Since you 've been going out for quite some time , your lover arranges for you to meet his/her parents . When you get to their house and you enter the front door , you hear him/her say `` I 'm sorry . '' as the door closes behind you .

`` Jon?'' I said, turning to see the door click shut behind me, and then turned back to see his parents come trotting out of the living room, a slow but growing confusion coming across their faces. 
 
 `` Ah - hello,'' Mrs. Huntington said, a short portly lady with her grey hair done up in a bun. `` Is Jon - Has he gone to get something, where did he go?'' 
 
 `` I do n't know,'' I said, my back already to them as I flung open the door. Outside the streets were empty but for a few parked cars and a stray dog loping along the sidewalk. Jon was gone. Not even the echoes of his footsteps left. 
 
 *** 
 
 `` I do n't understand it,'' Mr. Huntington - Greg - said, hanging up the telephone. We'd called his cellphone and listened to it ring, never getting an answer. We'd gone out, canvassing the neighborhood, flashlights in hand as the sun set, as if searching for a lost child. Which for the Huntingtons, I supposed, was literally the case. We'd knocked on doors, asked neighbors about a missing son. Even back in the Huntington's house, I felt the twilight chill still clinging to me, as if Jon had closed that door on some alternate reality. 
 
 Greg had finally called the police, gotten the response that disappearing for an hour did not qualify you as a missing person. His wife, Elena, had made us all some tea, and the untouched teacups were cooling on the table. Jon's car still sat outside on the sidewalk, doors still locked and the interior distant through the dusty windows, the keys lost somewhere in Jon's pockets. 
 
 `` He did n't say anything?'' Greg said, pacing the carpet, looking to me. `` He did n't - just anything, anything at all, a joke, a -'' 
 
 `` Was he anxious,'' Elena said, wringing her hands. `` Did he - did he not want you to meet us, or...'' 
 
 `` I do n't know!'' Jon had been nervous, he'd been making all these dumb little jokes on the drive here. He'd probably been more nervous than me. But not enough to just disappear. `` He said he was sorry,'' I said. He'd stopped at the front door and bowed with a little flourish and said, ladies first, and I'd gone in with a laugh. `` He said,'I'm sorry,' and then he shut the door behind me.'' 
 
 `` Sorry!'' Greg said, and slumped down into his chair. `` Sorry for what?'' He turned to his wife. `` What did we do? As if we did something wrong. As if leaving her here with us was, what, a punishment?'' 
 
 `` No, no,'' Elena muttered, and picked up her cup of tea and set it down again on the saucer. Her husband slapped his hands down on the armrests and fumed. 
 
 `` I-'' I faltered and then found my voice. `` Do the two of you know anything? I mean, you're his parents, you've known him longer than I have, do you have any idea of what any of this could mean?'' 
 
 `` His parents!'' Greg grunted. `` As if that means anything, these days.'' 
 
 `` Greg,'' Elena whispered. 
 
 I tried to think. Jon had barely told me anything about his parents. He'd said, they'd like to meet you, and he'd said, do n't worry, they'll like you. There was a story about his childhood, about his pet hamster getting loose in his room and leaving abandoned babies like Easter eggs, shriveled up children's corpses whenever he changed his sheets or moved his desk. There was that nervous lack of conversation, a sudden deafness and a pivot in conversation whenever I brought up his parents. There were a lot of arrows pointing nowhere. 
 
 `` It's you!'' Greg was saying. `` He was in love with you, was n't he? If he'd told anyone anything, anything at all-'' 
 
 `` Greg!'' Elena repeated, and laid her hand on his pointing finger. `` I'm sorry,'' she said to me. `` This is a bad first meeting. I do n't know what Jon was thinking. He'll be okay, I'm sure of it. So we should - you should go to the police too, file your own report if you ca n't talk to him either.'' 
 
 `` Of course,'' I said. `` And if he contacts me, I'll be sure to let the two of you know-'' 
 
 `` Yes, of course,'' Elena said, and laid her hand on Greg's shoulder. `` And if you like, my husband can dive you home-'' 
 
 `` I'll be fine,'' I said. `` I called AAA, they're sending someone over, I'll be able to drive back myself.'' 
 
 `` Good, good,'' she said, and we stood awkwardly in a triangle, three dots inevitably connected 
 
 `` So no one knows anything!'' Greg sighed. His body sagged further into his seat and the light glinted off his balding head. `` His parents, of course not. The woman he loves, why should she know anything! A man disappears, and he's sorry, he's sorry, that's all.'' 
 
 *** 
 
 The Huntingtons were still in the back of my mind as I drove home, Greg and Elena, two people who had come together to compose Jon. We'd been dating for a year and a half, and I thought that maybe I loved him, and this was my first time getting a glimpse into his childhood, into his origins. Maybe none of us knew him at all. I imagined myself disappearing instead, disappearing into the ether, and I wondered how Jon would have reacted, if he would have been able to trace back the disparate threads that had led to me removing myself from the face of the Earth. 
 
 My phone rang in my pocket, vibrating insistently, and I pulled up to a red light before I pulled it out and answered it. 
 
 `` I'm so sorry,'' Jon said.
