Page 36 of Calling a Cease-Fire

I swallowed. “Nothing. Sorry, just thinking of something.”

He smirked. “Or someone?”

“Don’t,” I warned. “I’ll never tell you anything ever again if you don’t leave it be.”

“I just don’t understand. If you like him and he likes you, just see where it goes.”

Did I actually like Zack? Or was it just pure physical attraction? I gritted my teeth. It didn’t matter. “I’ve tried that. So many times. It never ends well. You know this. And if I try, when it blows up like it always does, everyone will blame me, and my best friend will hate me.”

“You don’t know that, though.”

My screen lit up and I let out a relieved breath that I didn’t have to finish this conversation.

“911, what is the location of your emergency?”

Muffled sounds came through the line, including one that resembled sniffling, but no words.

“Hello, 911. What is your emergency?” I tried again as I waited for my system to give me a more concise location of the caller. The initial Phase I location only showed a large general area based on what cell tower the phone was using.

“My mommy’s sick,” a young boy said softly.

“Your mommy’s sick?” I needed to confirm I’d heard him correctly and let him know I was listening.

“Yeah.”

My fingers flew across the keys as I began inputting notes into the CAD, my computer-aided dispatch system. “Where is your mommy? Can I talk to her?”

“No. She, umm, fell down and now she’s sleeping.”

Fuck. I did not like the sound of that. At all.

“Can you go to her and say her name really loud? Try giving her a gentle shake for me?”

“Mommy,” he yelled, and a slight ruffling sound in the background followed. “Wake up, Mommy.”

“Do you see her chest or tummy moving up and down?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok, good.” That was a plus. But I needed to figure out his location, hopefully while he was still calm and talking to me. Maybe I’d get lucky and he would know exactly where he was. He sounded really young, though. “Can you tell me where you are?”

“In the kitchen.”

At least he was somewhere he likely felt safe. “Do you know where your house is?”

“Yeah.”

I tamped down my hope, knowing it might not be that easy. He sounded a little too young to know his actual address. “Okay. Where is it?”

“It’s blue.”

I couldn’t stop the small smile from forming on my lips, but it disappeared quickly as I focused back on my task. “How old are you?”

“Four.”

“Okay. Do you know what town you live in?”

“The lake.”