“Caleb, you’re not calling to scold me for missing Mass, are you?” Sascha’s morning voice was coarse.
“Sascha. Thank God I got you,” he said, sounding as bereft as he felt.
Her tone changed from playful to attentive. “What’s wrong?”
“Um, something terrible’s happened.” He could barely get the words out, feeling as if he was lost and far away.
“Where are you?” she demanded. “What’s wrong? Do you need help?”
He could hear her scurrying around. He pictured her in her cramped apartment. “Talk to me,” she ordered. “Where are you?”
“I can’t talk,” he said, realizing that the road had blurred before him. “I need to pull over.”
“You’re driving? . . . That’s not safe. Get your ass off the road.”
He breathed in short bursts. Phoenix might die before he could get to him.
“Are you having chest pains?” she asked, probably recalling how Caleb’s dad had died from a heart attack.
“No, it’s not me,” he said. “It’s Phoenix. He’s been hurt. I need to get into the city. Can you open the shop for me?”
“Who cares about the shop? Where are you?” she asked again.
“I’m still in New Brunswick. I pulled over on Easton Ave.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes. Don’t you dare move,” she commanded.
When she arrived, Caleb was leaning against his pickup, head in his hands.
Sascha’s Fiat screeched to a halt behind his truck and she jumped out. The familiar petite figure with auburn hair and head-to-toe red latex approached.
“What happened?”
“There was an accident.” He couldn’t get any more words out.
“Get in,” she said. “I’ll drive you to the city and you fill me in on the way there.”
He folded himself into the space that was ridiculously small for his large frame. He felt too upset to make his usual tease about her choice of a miniature vehicle.
“Where to?” she asked.
“Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. Take the GW Bridge.”
Her foot slammed the accelerator. The car took off like a rocket. “Phoenix is in the hospital?”
“Yeah.”
He couldn’t offer more. His brother was unconscious, in surgery. Maybe dying?
“Honey, I’m sorry. You want to tell me what’s going on?”
She had saved Caleb time and again.She deserves to know.Maybe it’d be a relief to get the awful news off his chest.
“Mom called to say Phoenix never showed up. He was in some freak accident. On a subway track. He got hit by a train.”
“Aw hell.” Her words exploded.
He felt like a jerk for dragging her into his inner torture. He faced her and put a calming hand on one leg. “You need me to drive?”
