Then it starts to ring.
It’s almost 11 p.m., who is calling me?
“Hello? Hellooooo?” A voice comes from the phone.
I pray it’s not Facetime and they aren’t getting a big fat view of Frankie's underside as she stays plopped atop the screen.
I walk over to the voice and reach to move Frankie off the phone, getting attacked and hissed at in doing so. “Will you get off?” I nudge her over and snag the phone before she stretches her huge stomach back over it.
“Hello?” I say, answering the unknown number.
“Mr. B? It’s Garrett.” His voice is shaky.
“Mr. Connors, why are you calling me so late? What’s going on?”
“Mr. B, it’s Devon. You need to get here fast!”
At the same time Garrett is talking to me, I get a notification from Kate.
“Garrett, send me the address and I’ll head that way.” I hang up the phone, turn the stove off, and throw on my jacket. I text Kate back and head to my truck.
The drive is going to take me about thirty minutes and for the first time in a long time I feel a surge of worry. It all looks a little too familiar, a time I drove late at night from a party flashes across my mind.
Sir, have you been drinking?
Why don’t you step out of the car?
It’s been five years since the accident and yet, I feel weighed down in my truck thinking about it.
I’ve broken up underage parties in the past. These kids are ruthless, and I seem to be the one they would always call when it got out of hand. It’s nice to feel trusted, but I am very aware of the lack of boundaries I have set for myself since they think they can call me to bail them out.
I’m still a few miles away when my phone starts to ring . . . Ellie is calling.
“This is Benny,” I answer, assuming she knows what’s going on.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
Did she not know? If she didn’t, why was she calling me this late?
“I’m headed to break up a party. What are you doing?”
“Oh really? Kate said there was something going on. I didn’t know you were the one they called.” Her voice sounds quiet, and soothing. The tension in my back loosens and my grip on the steering wheel releases as I listen to her. She has this grounding power for me and I didn’t even realize I needed it.
“It seems I am. Lucky me, huh?” I laugh.
“Do the cops get called?”
“Sometimes, only when it gets really bad. They figure they can call me before it gets too far, I guess.”
“Do you need any company?”
“That’s alright, I’m almost there.” I refrain from telling her I want her company more than anything.
“Okay, well keep me updated. I can come out there if you need me.”
“Thanks. Talk tomorrow?”
“Tonight. Call me after, I want to talk to you.” It might be my wishful thinking, but I hear a smile in her voice as she says “you.”
