I awoke to my phone buzzing on the nightstand next to Kaden's bed the next morning. At first, it was a rumbling noise in the dream I was having that I couldn't identify. A dream of a day with my mother and father on the beach, having a picnic, when I was only a young girl. There was a time when that wasn't a dream, but a reality. It's so long ago now that the faded memory is vanishing like smoke signals in the sky.
I finally pick my phone up to look at the number, only to read Donollee Hospital.
"Fuck." I whisper, trying not to wake Kaden. I jump out of his bed, squinting one eye against the morning light pouring into the sitting area of his bedroom. It must be at least ten in the morning. I answer the phone once I'm far enough away that I'm not worried I'm going to immediately wake him.
"Hello?"
Silence greeted me.
"Hello?"