Elias clutched the manual to his chest. On the cover, a cartoon radio smiled next to the tagline: “BF-S5 Plus: More than a walkie. Is the friend.”

Silence. Then: “Leo? Dad, is that you?”

He closed the booklet and smiled back.

He checked the manual, folded to . The last line read: “If no sound, try the moving. Sometimes the world is just the big obstacle.”

Now, WhatsApp was a ghost.