I kept the telephone in my hand.<\/p>\n
Bentley watched me from Ray\u2019s old chair.<\/p>\n
Maddie had finished her pancake and was rubbing syrup between her fingers.<\/p>\n
I wanted to make the call quickly.<\/p>\n
I also wanted Bentley to understand that I wasn't going to disappear into another room and leave him wondering what I had done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI'm going to contact the hospital,\u201d I told him. \u201cI'm going to ask about your mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
He swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill you tell them about us?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI'll tell them you need help.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared at the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything?\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought about that question.<\/p>\n
\u201cI'll tell them the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked frightened again.<\/p>\n
I pulled my chair closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth isn't something you need to be ashamed of, Bentley.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn't answer.<\/p>\n
I wasn't sure he believed me.<\/p>\n
I dialed the number for Ball Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n
While I waited, I watched Maddie pick up a crumb from her plate.<\/p>\n
She examined it carefully before putting it into her mouth.<\/p>\n
That small gesture hurt more than I expected.<\/p>\n
Children should not have to think about whether a crumb was worth saving.<\/p>\n
The telephone rang several times.<\/p>\n
When someone answered, I asked to speak with someone who could help me locate a patient.<\/p>\n
I explained that I was a neighbor of a woman named Amber who had reportedly been admitted after a fall at work.<\/p>\n
I gave them the information I knew.<\/p>\n
Then I waited.<\/p>\n
The person on the other end asked questions I couldn't answer.<\/p>\n
I didn't know Amber's full medical details.<\/p>\n
I didn't know the date of her surgery.<\/p>\n
I didn't know whether she had been moved to another unit.<\/p>\n
I only knew what her ten-year-old son had told me.<\/p>\n
And I knew she had not returned home.<\/p>\n
I gave the hospital my contact information and explained that the children were currently with me.<\/p>\n
I could hear Bentley shifting in his chair.<\/p>\n
He kept glancing at the telephone.<\/p>\n
When I ended the call, he immediately spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre they coming?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you tell them about Maddie?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at his sister.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre they going to take her?\u201d<\/p>\n
I set the telephone down.<\/p>\n
\u201cBentley, I can't promise you what every person will decide. But I can promise that I'm going to keep speaking up for you both.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me for a long time.<\/p>\n
Then he asked, \u201cCan we stay here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor now, you're both staying with me while I work out the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
It wasn't relief exactly.<\/p>\n
It was the smallest possible permission to breathe.<\/p>\n
I cleaned the plates while the children remained at the table.<\/p>\n
Maddie asked for another pancake.<\/p>\n
I gave her one.<\/p>\n
Bentley started to divide it between them.<\/p>\n
I stopped him gently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere's enough for both of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at the pancake.<\/p>\n
Then he looked at me.<\/p>\n
This time, he kept his portion.<\/p>\n
That small decision felt important.<\/p>\n
I wanted him to understand that eating his own breakfast wasn't selfish.<\/p>\n
I wanted him to understand that a child could be cared for without owing something in return.<\/p>\n
But I couldn't teach him all of that in one morning.<\/p>\n
There was too much else to do.<\/p>\n
I asked whether he knew where Amber kept her important papers.<\/p>\n
He shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about her phone?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt's at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know if it's charged?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you tried calling her?\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt went to the message.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt a fresh pang of worry.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMostly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you leave her a message?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked embarrassed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
I reached for his hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can tell her you love her. You can tell her you and Maddie are safe with me. You don't have to figure out anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared at his fingers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't want her to worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was another thing I hadn't considered.<\/p>\n
He wasn't only frightened of losing his mother.<\/p>\n
He was also trying to protect her from knowing how frightened he was.<\/p>\n
I remembered the blue jar.<\/p>\n
The money Amber had left behind.<\/p>\n
The food she had believed was in the freezer.<\/p>\n
She had made some preparations.<\/p>\n
She had apparently expected to be away for a short time.<\/p>\n
But she hadn't prepared for nine days without being able to care for her children.<\/p>\n
I couldn't tell whether she had misunderstood the seriousness of her injuries or whether something had happened after the last call.<\/p>\n
I refused to guess.<\/p>\n
I would have to wait for information from someone who actually knew.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the children needed supervision.<\/p>\n
They needed food.<\/p>\n
They needed a safe place to stay.<\/p>\n
I looked at the clock again.<\/p>\n
The morning was slipping away.<\/p>\n
\u201cBentley, when does your school day end?\u201d<\/p>\n
He told me.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes your teacher know what's happening?\u201d<\/p>\n
He shook his head.<\/p>\n
I wondered whether he had managed to concentrate on lessons during the previous week.<\/p>\n
Perhaps he had spent every school day wondering what he would find when he got home.<\/p>\n
Perhaps he had worried about whether Maddie had eaten.<\/p>\n
I could only imagine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you like me to let the school know you're safe?\u201d<\/p>\n
His face tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill they call somebody?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know exactly what they'll do. But we need to make sure the adults responsible for you know what's happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked down.<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
Finally, he nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a small word.<\/p>\n
It cost him something to say it.<\/p>\n
I could see that.<\/p>\n
I also understood that asking him to trust me didn't mean I should expect him to stop being afraid.<\/p>\n
Trust wasn't a switch.<\/p>\n
It was something I would have to earn.<\/p>\n
I put fresh water in Maddie's cup and helped her wipe her hands.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at Bentley.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou've done enough worrying for this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
He almost smiled.<\/p>\n
Almost.<\/p>\n
I thought that was progress.<\/p>\n
Not because everything was better.<\/p>\n
Because, for the first time since Amber had gone to the hospital, Bentley wasn't the only person trying to hold the family together.<\/p>\n
I was there now.<\/p>\n
And I wasn't going to pretend I hadn't seen what was happening.<\/p>\n
I kept the telephone in my hand. Bentley watched me from Ray\u2019s old chair. Maddie had finished her pancake and was rubbing syrup between her fingers. I wanted to make … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36408,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36388\/revisions\/36408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}