“Yeah, so much for the white.”
She’d used all kinds of cleaning products, but there was a permanent spot, several actually, where Austin had been.
Eventually, she just bought a throw rug, covered the stain, and called it a failed experiment.
Present Day
When she answered her phone, the word “Mom” woke her up.
She was immediately awake.
Now, with grown kids, she wished for the days when the worst thing that could wake her in the middle of the night was a red dye stain on the new carpet. When the phone rings at three a.m., there is nothing good on the other end. Nothing.
“Mom.”
J.J. was disoriented. She wasn’t in her house.
Where is Dean? Where am I? Did I dream that? That I heard my phone?
No, it was in her hand. It was up to her ear.
“Mom.”
There it was again.
She was awake now. Totally and frighteningly so. “I’m here. D.J?”
“I’m okay. But I need your help. I don’t know what.”
D.J.’s voice was odd. His words were slurred.
The reality clicked in her brain. He was calling her in the dead of night, and he sounded disoriented. He was slurring his words.
She sat up in bed. “What is it?”
“I’m in the ditch. The truck’s in the ditch. I don’t know what to do. I need you to pick me up.”
Has he hit his head? Is this a concussion? Is he bleeding or lightheaded?
“Where? Are you hurt? Was anyone else?”
“No. No. Of course not.”
D.J. said he was along some road with the truck in a ditch.
J.J.’s mind leaped to everything awful, everything she feared. “Where. What street?”
She’d get there. She’d be sure he was safe. That was first. Get to her son. “Do you know where you are?”
“Somewhere, out by the dance hall, you know, I’m not sure.” D.J. rambled on. She needed him to keep talking. Somehow, having him talk seemed like the right thing.
“Hey! Figure it out. Where are you?”
“I can ping you.”
“Just look, is it by a field or closer to the lake?”
“Field, you know how Rexard and Southford come together?”
