A blubbering, crying, pathetic loser.
“Fuck, Stanley…”
My phone rang in my pocket.
“Who the fuck…”
I’d told Brock and all the other Reapers to leave me alone for the rest of the night. No one had said a word to me as I’d left the shop. They all understood on some level, if not the absolute level, that I needed space for what I was about to go and do.
Highly unlikely to be Elizabeth after the way I’d treated her on Thursday. She hadn’t said a word to me since, and I didn’t expect her to. I didn’t wish ill on her, but I knew wishing well to her after the way I’d acted was the height of hypocrisy.
I looked at my phone. It was a number I didn’t recognize. I hit ignore and looked up at my brother’s grave.
“October 1, 1991-June 13, 2005.”
Motherfucker…too soon. Too fast. You were the better of us, Stan. It…
The phone rang in my pocket again. It was again the same number.
I thought a little differently about it this time. There was no way someone was trying to call me this late for a prank. At one in the afternoon on a weekday, probably spam. At nine o’clock on a Saturday night?
I answered the call.
“Yeah?” I said, lowering my voice.
“Hi, is this Steele Harrison?” a polite woman’s voice said.
“Who’s calling?”
“This is the East Albuquerque General Hospital. Is this Steele Harrison?”
What the fuck…
“Yes. Why are you calling?”
“Steele, your mother had a heart attack.”
I collapsed onto my butt and sat there, dumbfounded. Did God like treating me like a pinata, battering me around and whacking off pieces of me? Did life want to see how fucking cruel it could be in one go around?
“Is she…”
“She’s alive, she’s stable, but she needs to stay overnight as a precaution.”
I grunted. At least I wouldn’t have to get a third plot of land next to these two graves today.
“She’s asking for you to come and visit.”
Fuck.
“East Albuquerque General? What floor?”
“Fourth floor, room four-F.”
“I’m heading that way now.”
I ended the call, sighed, and collapsed onto my back. At least my mother was alive. I didn’t need to speed over to try and see her before she died.
Unlike when Stan and my father had died.
