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“Miss Williams, the school just got a call from the Silver Falls police station. You are the only next of kin for your mother, is that right?”
Yes, I’m all she has. She’sall. I. Have.
Please be okay. Mom, please be okay.
I nod.
“I’m afraid your mother has been arrested on theft charges. They haven’t told us anything else. She is being held in jail until further notice.”
My whole world collapses.
The room tilts, my vision narrows as black spots invade the corner of my eyes.
“We can call you a cab to the station, but you won’t be able to see her until her interrogation is over. What you can do is call the station and ask to speak to her. They might let you.”
His voice disappears across the surface as I sink underwater. All I can hear are faint sounds as my ears ring louder and louder. My stomach tightens under the pressure, threatening to empty itself. Bile burns its way through my throat, and I desperately try to swallow it back down.
That makes no sense.
I don’t get it. Can’t handle it.
All sorts of scenarios run through my head as I imagine her being fired from the Bakers café, never being able to get another job. The crippling debts, never being able to pay back, my mom in prison.
I attempt to take a deep breath, trying to settle down the ringing. Impossible.
“Miss Williams?” Looking up, my gaze falls on Principal Parker again. “Would you like to call your mother?”
“I…” The whirl of doom and anxious thoughts going around in my body stops me from thinking straight. “I don’t have a phone with me.”
“Well, you can use the schools of course. Or if you would like to go to the station, Coach Thompson has offered to accompany you.”
Looking to the side, I notice Coach T. standing next to Mr. Ashton. When did he come in?
I shake my head ‘no’. “Can I…can I call, please?”
“Ms. Rodgers will let you use the one behind her desk. You’ll have more privacy.”
I feel like the walk to her desk takes hours, like the tone of the phone is deafening. When my mom’s voice finally comes on, I’m a lost child. My one and only compass in life has broken and everything has fallen apart.
“Mom?” I sob. It comes out all at once, the tears flow, the fear drowns me, the tightness in my throat mutes me.
“’Me, sweetie, it’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”
But it’s not. It’s not and her tone says it all.
“I had a chance to speak with Mr. Baker earlier, before…before they arrested me.”
She scratches her throat and I scratch mine, mirroring my one and only example in life.
“He showed me the proof. He has a document that counted all the missing money. All the moneyItook. Yes?”
It clicks straight away. All the moneyshetook. She’s taking the fall for both of us. I’m eighteen now, I could get in serious trouble, and she doesn’t want that for me.
“Mom…”
“I have to go, ‘Me. I’ll call you, okay? Please, arrange to sleep at the Joly’s tonight.”
“I will, Mom, and I’ll talk to Hope!”
