Alice stood at the window, her eyes scanning the darkness outside. "Where is he?" she wondered, out loud. "He said that he would be back hours ago!" Her mouth was drawn into a thin, tight line, and worry-lines creased her forehead. She gave one final glance out of the window, then sighed as she turned away. "It's just not like him to be this late. I hope nothing happened," she said, sighing again. Although worry made it hard for her to concentrate, she forced herself to go back to the seemingly impossible task of unpacking the endless supply of boxes and crates, which littered the living room floor.Her husband had just recently recieved a promotion at his highly successful software development company, SERTECH Enterprises. As a result, Alice and her little family found themselves moved to a brand-new house, in a brand-new town, clear on the other side of the country. They had been there for about five weeks, but Alice still had a lot of unpacking to do.
While she worked, Alice tried to take her mind off of her worry by thinking of more pleasant things, like her two wonderful (though sometimes bratty) children, who were sleeping peacefully upstairs. The phone rang in the kitchen, interrupting her thoughts. Alice dropped the box she was holding, and raced to pick it up. As she reached for the phone, she glanced back at the box she had dropped, somewhat relieved to see that it just contained some clothing. "Hello?" Alice said into the receiver.
"Hello, Mrs. Crew?" a man's voice answered on the other end of the line. It's not Joe, Alice thought to herself. Maybe it's someone from his work? "Yes, this is Mrs. Crew. May I ask who is calling, and what it's about?" "My name is Mike Saunders, and I work at the Pine Valley Hospital," the man said.
The word "Hospital" caused cold chills to race down Alice's spine. "Don't panic Alice," she told herself. "Just because you got a call from a hospital, it doesn't mean that anything has happened to Joe. The hospital could just be asking for donations, or informing us about a charity function of some sort. And besides, wasn't it the Police who usually informed the family members when someone was injured, or dead?" She shuddered at the word.
The man on the other end of the line spoke again, his next words causing chills to enter her heart. "Are you sitting down Ma'am?" Mike said. Alice knew then that the call wasn't about donations or charity functions. Something had happened to Joe. Her knees felt weak, so she pulled a chair over to her, and sat down. "I am now," she spoke, "please continue,". "And please don't let Joe be dead!" she pleaded, silently.
"I'm sorry that I have to tell you this Ma'am, but I have some bad news. Your husband was in a terrible accident this evening,"...
by Celia Helen Tracy
copyright © 2000 Celia Helen Tracy