The Phone Call
A phone rang in the apartment. No one answered it. If someone had been up at this ungodly hour, they would've heard a teenaged boy's voice. The boy spoke a few words and then hung up the phone.
"I'll make it home. I promise. Love you." He said before the room fell silent once again.
-The next morning-
Sally Jackson thought that today was going to be like any other day. She would sit down and weep. Wait for her son to come home. Maybe even work on her novel. She noticed the phone beeping. Who would have left a voicemail before six in the morning?
"Mom." Her son's voice said. "Hey, I'm alive. Hera put me to sleep for a while, and then she took my memory, and…" He trailed off. "Anyway, I'm okay. I'm sorry. I'm on a quest…" He clearly hadn't meant to tell his mother about that. "I'll make it home. I promise. Love you."
Sally Jackson sat down at the kitchen table and wondered. Wondered how her son was alive. She prayed that he would live. He promised. He would make it home.
-Days later-
Sally Jackson spent her morning pacing the apartment, just like every other day since the phone call. She waited for her little boy to walk in, to give her a hug and tell her she was alright. When, she wondered, had her son started to protect her, and not the other way around?
When Sally had gotten the call, she had been sure her son would follow through on his promise. She wasn't sure anymore. Why couldn't her son be home? Why couldn't she worry about him hurting himself skateboarding, and not fighting monsters?
A mother was supposed to protect her son and she was no longer able to do that. Her little boy was all grown up, but that didn't mean he could just vanish.
Sally just wanted him home.
-A month later-
Sally's son had been missing for over nine months. Besides the one phone call, a month ago, there had been no contact from him. Her son was on a quest. No one was safe, especially not him.
There was a soft knock at the door. Sally dried her tears and opened it.
"Hey, mom." Perseus Jackson said simply.
"Percy." She said as if in a trance.
The boy stepped forward and hugged his mother. Sally looked over the boy, now seventeen years old and grown. Covered in scars as he was, her son had still never looked happier.
"I think we need to make some blue cookies." Sally said.
Percy smiled like a child. "Sure."
That's when Sally noticed something on his arm.
"Percy Jackson, did you get a tattoo?" She asked angrily.
Percy laughed. "Yes. Not voluntarily, of course."
Sally rolled her eyes and led her son into the kitchen.
-An hour later-
Sally handed her son the first cookie, dyed blue as all the others were.
"Happy birthday, Percy." Sally said.
"What?" He asked.
"Today is August 19th." Sally said. "You turned seventeen yesterday."
Percy laughed and ate his cookie.
"You also missed a lot of school." Sally commented.
Percy groaned half-heartedly. "School won't seem as horrible anymore."
Sally Jackson's son was all grown up. He wasn't the little boy that he had been, when he left. He sounded older and wiser since he left that phone call.
Percy Jackson laughed at something his mother said and ate another cookie.
Sally's son may not be perfect, but who was? Percy had kept his promise. He was home.