I got home from school that late October afternoon, and my mother met me at the door. She had my son in her arms, and I grinned when he reached for me, making those cooing noises he only seems to make when I'm around. I took him from her and kissed her hello.
"How was everything today?" I asked as we walked into the house. I kissed the top of James' head and put him into his seat so we could talk for a minute before she left to go back to her own house.
"Everything was fine," my mom said as she smiled at James. I looked at him too. I'm still amazed by how much I love him. I've always loved and felt protective of my students, but I never knew how much I would love a child of my own. I'm so glad I do now.
"Sarah," my mom said, and I turned back to her. She looked serious, I suddenly realized.
"What happened?" I asked. I was calm because James was obviously fine, but I could already sense that something else was possibly wrong.
"You got a phone call just a little while ago. It was that former student of yours with the funny name… I wrote it down. It's like an animal or something?"
She got up to look for the paper where she'd written the message, but I stopped her.
"Mom, it had to be Ponyboy. What did he say? Why did he call?"
She shrugged. "He wouldn't say on the phone, but he asked me to have you call him as soon as you got home. He didn't leave a number, but he said to tell you he's home."
My heart sank. This couldn't be a good thing. Pony's supposed to be in college. He's not supposed to be home.
"Do you have another few minutes before you need to leave?" I asked her. "I want to call him back, but I have a feeling I'll need my full attention for this phone call. Can you watch James a little while longer?"
"Of course," she said. I got up to use the phone in the bedroom, and she lifted James out of his seat, chattering to him. I marveled again at how lucky I was to have her watch him during the day. There was no way my husband and I would be able to afford daycare or for me to stay home.
Once I got into my bedroom, I closed the door, sat down on the side of the bed, and just stared at the phone. I knew I had to call him back, but I also knew that he couldn't have been calling for a good reason. If it were a good thing, he'd have been calling from college. I dreaded finding out why he'd called, but I knew I couldn't put it off any longer. If he were calling me, it was because he needed to. And I needed to know why. Pony may have become a friend, but now that I was a mother, I was even more protective of him than I'd been when he was younger. I was finally realizing just how much every boy needed a mother, and I knew that he'd always miss his. I usually tried to help in whatever way I could. I took a deep breath and picked up the phone.