Her phone dinged. Raj again.Well?
Nadine took a deep breath and ignored the little worm of doubt because she was running out of time. It was her call.I’m going to run her obit.
You need any help from me? My shift ended five minutes ago, and I don’t want to look at another screen until tomorrow. I say tomorrow but technically it’s today. I should never have asked for my hours to be moved back.
Nadine was editing the story to include the cause of death.You go home. I have it covered.
It took less than a minute to get theHeraldon record as the first media organization to tell the world the brilliant Dot Voline had passed away. She clicked to theHerald’s website to ensure it loaded properly, sipping the cooled toddy with the sleepy satisfaction that came from a job well done.
Then she went to bed and fell blissfully asleep.
Two
Whenever possible, Wesley Chen walked the forty-five minutes to theSpearoffice. It set him up for the day and provided a much needed separation between home and work. Unfortunately, this Wednesday morning offered none of the little pleasures he looked forward to. His favorite place to grab coffee had shut down for emergency maintenance. His second favorite had a line out the door of all the people who couldn’t get into the first place. The third had apparently gone out of business last week.
He was deciding whether to get a watery cup from a chain store—he wouldn’t enjoy it, but it would at least be coffee—when his phone rang. His spirits immediately soared when he saw it was his little sister, Ella.
“Hellooo.” He drew out the greeting, but instead of the laughter he expected, all he heard was sniffling. Wes went on immediate alert. He should have known Ella wasn’t calling to say hi. It wasn’t even six in the morning where she was in Vancouver. “El? What’s going on? Are you hurt?”
“No.” More sniffles. “Ma just called.”
Of course it was Ma. “What did she say?” He left out thethis time.There was a reason Ella went to university on the other side of the country, and it was their mother.
“Nothing. More of the usual. That I’m selfish for staying here. If I cared about her, I would come home. She’s lonely since Amy moved out, and it’s my fault.”
Wes leaned against the brick wall of a design store and settled himself to calm his sister. “Ella, Ma is fine. I’m at home, and Amy’s apartment is close.”
“Are you sure?” Ella’s voice had a little waver that made Wes’s heart clench.
“Absolutely,” he assured her. “What did I say when you left for Vancouver?”
“To get the yakiniku rice hot dog from Japadog, work hard, and not take open drinks from strangers,” Ella repeated in a singsong voice.
“Correct. What wasn’t on the list?”
“Worrying about Ma.”
“That’s my job.”
“Things really are okay at home?”
“They really are,” he said, almost believing it himself.
After they disconnected, Wes sat on a bench and watched people hurry by on their way to work. He stared at his phone. Then he called his mother.
“Hi, Ma.”
She didn’t return his greeting. “I want Ella home. I keep telling her she needs to be here, and she doesn’t listen.”
Wes knew the tone in her voice meant he had about thirty seconds to prevent a follow-up call to Ella. Luckily—or not—years of experience meant Wes had become the family’s expert Ma whisperer, and he reached for his gold-standard tactic: redirection. “Oh? By the way, Ma, I called to tell you I won’t be home for dinner.”
His mother immediately turned her attention away from Ella and onto him. “Not coming home? Where are you going?”
Wes hadn’t thought that far ahead in his lie, so went with the basic, “Out with a friend.”
“What friend? You don’t have friends. You don’t need them. You have your family. I work to the bone to come home to an empty house? What kind of gratitude is that? Selfish. I’ve always known it. Only thinking about yourself after all I do for you. Useless.”
He listened for another five minutes, not speaking, just gazing at the pigeons, until his mother wound herself down and abruptly hung up. He slid his phone into his pocket—there was no point calling back, as she wouldn’t answer—and continued walking, shoulders tighter than usual with tension.
