I reached the parking garage with my phone still in my hand.<\/p>\n
I found my car.<\/p>\n
I opened the door.<\/p>\n
Then I called 911.<\/p>\n
I had never been so frightened while making a phone call.<\/p>\n
The dispatcher answered.<\/p>\n
I told her my name.<\/p>\n
Then my address.<\/p>\n
Then I tried to explain what Noah had told me.<\/p>\n
"My son is four years old."<\/p>\n
I forced myself to speak clearly.<\/p>\n
"He called me from home. He said his mother's boyfriend hit him with a baseball bat."<\/p>\n
The dispatcher asked whether my son was injured.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Where is he hurt?"<\/p>\n
"His arm."<\/p>\n
I gripped the steering wheel.<\/p>\n
"He said it hurts badly."<\/p>\n
She asked whether I knew where the man was.<\/p>\n
"I think he's still in the house."<\/p>\n
I told her about Lena.<\/p>\n
I gave her Travis's first name.<\/p>\n
I explained that Noah's mother was not there when he called.<\/p>\n
Then I told her about the threat.<\/p>\n
"My son said the man told him he'd hit him again if he cried."<\/p>\n
There was a pause while she took down the information.<\/p>\n
I wanted her to understand something.<\/p>\n
Noah was four.<\/p>\n
He was not old enough to defend himself.<\/p>\n
He was not old enough to decide what to do when a grown man threatened him.<\/p>\n
He had done the only thing he could think of.<\/p>\n
He had called his father.<\/p>\n
And I had been sitting in a meeting.<\/p>\n
Looking back, that part still hurts.<\/p>\n
The dispatcher told me officers were being sent.<\/p>\n
I told her my brother was heading toward the house.<\/p>\n
"He's closer than I am."<\/p>\n
She asked me to tell him not to confront the man if he could avoid it.<\/p>\n
I understood.<\/p>\n
I really did.<\/p>\n
But I also understood that my boy was inside that house.<\/p>\n
I told her I would pass along the warning.<\/p>\n
Then I began driving.<\/p>\n
The city had never felt so crowded.<\/p>\n
I reached a red light.<\/p>\n
Stopped.<\/p>\n
Watched cars move through the intersection.<\/p>\n
Waited.<\/p>\n
My hands were damp against the steering wheel.<\/p>\n
I kept looking at the clock.<\/p>\n
Every minute felt too long.<\/p>\n
I wanted to call Noah again.<\/p>\n
I wanted to hear his voice.<\/p>\n
But Travis had already taken the phone.<\/p>\n
Or at least the call had ended when Travis demanded it.<\/p>\n
I did not know what would happen if the phone rang again.<\/p>\n
So I kept driving.<\/p>\n
I thought about Noah's blue winter coat.<\/p>\n
The one that zipped right up under his chin.<\/p>\n
I thought about how small his hands looked inside the sleeves.<\/p>\n
I thought about his bicycle.<\/p>\n
His little fists bumping Derek's hand.<\/p>\n
The way he called for me when he was frightened.<\/p>\n
I wanted to be home.<\/p>\n
That was all.<\/p>\n
I did not care about the meeting.<\/p>\n
I did not care about the work I had left behind.<\/p>\n
I wanted to see my son.<\/p>\n
I wanted to know whether he was conscious.<\/p>\n
Whether he could stand.<\/p>\n
Whether his arm was broken.<\/p>\n
Whether that man had touched him again.<\/p>\n
Then my phone rang.<\/p>\n
Derek.<\/p>\n
I answered immediately.<\/p>\n
"Where are you?"<\/p>\n
"Two blocks away."<\/p>\n
I looked at the traffic ahead of me.<\/p>\n
"Please keep talking to me."<\/p>\n
"I'm here."<\/p>\n
"Don't hang up."<\/p>\n
"I won't."<\/p>\n
I remembered the dispatcher's warning.<\/p>\n
"The police are coming. They said not to confront him if you can avoid it."<\/p>\n
Derek did not argue.<\/p>\n
He kept his voice steady.<\/p>\n
"Understood."<\/p>\n
I tried to breathe normally.<\/p>\n
I could hear his vehicle moving.<\/p>\n
Then he spoke again.<\/p>\n
"I've got the house in sight."<\/p>\n
Those words should have made me feel better.<\/p>\n
Instead, my hands tightened around the steering wheel.<\/p>\n
Because Derek was there.<\/p>\n
And I was not.<\/p>\n
I reached the parking garage with my phone still in my hand. I found my car. I opened the door. Then I called 911. I had never been so frightened … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41415","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\/41415","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=41415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41425,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41415\/revisions\/41425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}