Pestilence

61

Samantha woke to the sound of ringing. She checked her cell phone, but the batteries were long dead, and she realized her home phone was ringing.

Jessica was still asleep, her head nestled comfortably underneath Sam’s arm. Samantha calmly lifted her arm and rose from the couch. She didn’t know what time it was, but bright sunshine was coming through all the windows. A note from her mother’s nurse was on the coffee table, letting her know that her mother had been fed and changed and that she hadn’t wanted to wake Sam. It also asked who the girl was and said that she was adorable.

Samantha walked to the phone in the kitchen and answered it. “This is Samantha.”

“Samantha, I didn’t know if you’d made it back. This is Freddy.”

Her boss-he was the person in the entire world she least wanted to talk to. “What do you need, Freddy?”

“Um, well, I don’t know what to say. I heard about Duncan. Olsen called me and let me know. I’m sorry. I know you two were friends.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah. Well, um, what I was calling about was that I was wondering when you were going to come in next.”

“Come in to the office?”

“Well, yeah. This is an enormously important time, Sam. We’ve had four detonations, and all have come back as-”

“We had four detonations?” she asked, shocked. She remembered Olsen mentioning that to her, but in her medicated state, it had passed through without the recognition it deserved.

“Oh, well, yeah. I thought you’d heard.”

“I’ll be right down.”