Chapter 43: Phone calls and a Cryptic text

~Wren~

I should have called the moment I got the phone this morning. I was excited and craving a talk with dad, but now that I’ve spent the entire day stewing in the many ways the conversation could go, I’m finding it hard to hit the call button. What if he needs me and I can’t be there? What if he doesn’t answer or worse, what if something happened? Sweat covers my palms and I wipe them on my clean pajama pants with a puff of nervous breath. 

“I can do this. Just a simple ‘Hey dad, how are you?’ Easy. I got this.”

My hands shake as I type in his phone number and hit the green phone icon connecting our lines. I jump with every trill of the line, each sound a reminder that he might not be there anymore. He could be dead for all I know. Tears crowd my eyes and I swallow the sting in my throat. 

“Hello?” an unfamiliar male voice answers the phone.<