Prologue

Dear Diary,

We live in a world of social media, where everybody’s private lives are at our fingertips. Even if their profiles are set to private, they are still there, ready to be found. But what does it mean when something that was once there is gone? Untraceable. The profile, the status updates, and the photos. Years and years’ worth of personal history and memories, vanished. Or, what happens when a profile is still there, but the activity is not? With every passing day, week, month, year. Nothing. No new uploads or photos. No life updates. Just an abandoned account, still viewable but untouched. Where are they? Where did they go? It was the same question I’d been asking myself for almost a year now. Where are you, Dave?

Not a day goes by when you are not in my thoughts. Where are you? What are you doing? Are you well? Do you miss our daily conversations as much as I do? Do you miss me as much as I miss you? I even came by your house today. I wanted to knock on your door. To see your face. To see for myself that you are still okay, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. You hadn’t replied to my last email, so maybe you didn’t want to be found. I knew, deep down, I shouldn’t have come here. Was it wrong of me to come looking for you? Hoping, as I walked around your usual spots, I would casually bump into you. An accident, of course, definitely not one done on purpose... But you were nowhere to be seen. I felt the disappointment deep within my heart, but I couldn’t stay much longer. I had to go. Maybe next time I will have more luck in finding you. If you wanted me to...