It was much later that night before Maria picked up her own phone and began to dial a familiar number. While Emily's parents had moved, Maria's had stayed in exactly the same place and the numbers seemed to burn her fingers from recognition.
Emily was mostly calm now, having gotten off the phone before breaking down into tears, which Maria had gladly calmed and comforted. From what Maria understood, Emily's pain was linked with guilt over having left her home.
Things were simpler but so much more complicated for Maria. Far from leaving voluntarily, she had become separated from her parents on a trip and, left with no funds or contacts, been making her way in the harsher city of Seattle until she could afford to go home. Gradually it had become livable, as she'd discovered just how long it would take to get home.
She'd been afraid to call; afraid to watch her parents and little brother spend so much money to come get her. Resolved that she would get back on her own two feet, prove that she wasn't a baby anymore.
What Manticore had offered had seemed a mostly quick solution to her monetary problems. A couple months in exchange for enough money to get home and actually contribute to her family for once. Only she'd never gotten out of Manticore's buildings and asylums.
Deep breath again, bad memories pushed aside, wait for the phone to answer in a room that she could still picture from many years ago, though she doubted that it was exactly unchanged.
Ring… Ring… and… "Hello?" A male voice, definitely not that heavily accented one of her father, someone unfamiliar.
She was unsure of what to do, what to say. Opted for a politeness belaying the longing and familiarity that boiled up in her guts, "Hello. Are mister or missus Rodriquez in by any chance?"
"Who wants to know," suspicious, telemarketers were obsolete since the pulse and rarely did families in her rural area get phone calls from strangers.
Best to explain that I'm not a stranger then, Maria decided quickly, no matter if the person on the other end of the line was a stranger, no matter how long it took to get through to her family now that she'd gotten this far. "Maria."
And despite the fact that she didn't recognize the voice of the person on the other end of the line, he immediately recognized hers and in place with her name, everything fit. "Maria! Oh, Lord, Maria! It's Andre!"
Suddenly it clicked into place for her as well, causing tears to spring to her eyes. Andre, her little brother, obviously a grown man now, of course he didn't sound at all the same. "Andre," it broke her heart to know how much of her baby brother's life she had been forced to miss.
"Maria, hold on, I'll go get momma and poppa… just hold on…" His footsteps scurried away and Maria fought back her own tears realizing that they were probably very afraid that she would go away again by some other accident, before they could get to talk to her again.
And she resolved then and there that she would have back what Manticore had helped to take from her. She wanted her family, wanted her mother, father, brother, and wanted her daughter. She wanted Maria back.