Chapter 3
Ring. Ring. Ring.
In Sadie's dreamland Owen had just started ringing. We were in the forest somewhere, chasing something, a big something that I didn't recognize and he'd just started ringing. Not like his cell phone or anything, just him. Big old Owen Call was ringing. Damn, there he went again.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Then I realized it wasn't dreamland Owen ringing. It was that obnoxiously pink phone that I'd begged my dad for when I was eight. Groaning a little I reached out with a blind hand, eyes shut tightly against the morning and picked it up as the ringing stopped. Bringing it to my ear, I realized that it had already been answered as I heard two familiar voices.
"PJ too?"
I knew who they were talking about, of course. Paul Jr. I'd yet to decide if the PJ stood for Paul Junior or Paul Joseph though because I knew that his middle name was Joseph having heard his mother call him that quite frequently when we were kids and he'd lose his temper over something or other. I also knew that he wasn't too found of the nickname PJ, not that I blamed him, but it was a way to distinguish him from his father. We'd tried calling him Pauly when he'd been little and turned out he hated that even more than he hated PJ. I suppose that was because it sounded just like Polly.
"Yeah, Jake, it was last night after the bonfire."
Last night after the bonfire? What? PJ had seemed fine last night, not sick at all. In fact he'd pretty much been begging his parents to let all us older kids (Me, Owen, Caleb, and him) if we could go cliff diving and sick people didn't go cliff diving. But maybe that was why Josh had been gone; maybe there was some kind of sickness going around that hit out of nowhere. Things weren't exactly making a lot of sense in my just-woke-up-five-minutes-ago mind.
"...It must be serious then."
"Yeah, I'd say so, he's the second one in the past week."
So perhaps they really were talking about getting sick? After all I knew Josh and PJ were pretty close being only a year apart in age and the two oldest guys on the Rez so they'd probably seen each other sometime not too soon before the bonfire.
"Have you told the girls?"
The girls? I assumed that Dad was referring to Sammi and Kelsey because they were the only girls that came to mind, PJ being an only child. But wouldn't they already know their brother was sick. Maybe Josh was just being quarantined up in his loft and they didn't know their brother apparently had some really serious illness that spread like wildfire.
"No."
Why couldn't they know, I wondered as silence set in on my father's part.
"It's not like you ever told Rachel or Rebecca. You haven't even told Sadie."
What? Hadn't even told me what? Even my still half-asleep brain knew that something was going on here. I think it was safe to assume that it wasn't sickness either. Or maybe it was? Maybe it was some life threatening illness that my father had contracted years ago and he was afraid to tell me because he didn't want me to worry. Too late. Now Josh and PJ had it too. Oh God.
"I've got to go, Sam. Rebecca and Thomas are bringing Taylor and Sarah over."
"Alright, Jake."
I heard the distinctive click of two phones being hung up as I sat there in my bed, pink phone still held to my ears. The phone went to that obnoxious beeping sound as I heard my father's footsteps coming in my direction. I quickly slammed my phone down not wanting him to know that I knew and laid back down burying my face in my pillow. If he couldn't see my face then he couldn't tell that I knew. My door creaked open and I buried my face farther into the pillow as I heard him step in. "Hey, Sadie, time to get up. They're gonna be hear soon."
I tried my best to look like I'd just woken up but I think I ended up looking more like a deer in headlights as Dad laughed. "I know Sarah's a little girly for your tastes, but Rebecca made her swear she wouldn't try to tie you to the kitchen chair and make you over again."
Oh yeah, thank God he'd assumed that's why I was looking the way that I was. Nodding a little and laughing a bit, I stood up and headed for my dresser as Dad left to go look after Grandpa Billy.
Author's note: So there it is, chapter 3. I'm actually hoping to get chapter 4 done today as well. I'm kinda really inspired at the moment, you know how that goes, when you get a character with a story that's just begging to be told and seeing as how it's the weekend I've got time to write. Hopefully you guys are liking what I've gotten so far. Thanks for everyone who has been reading and reviewing, it really means a lot.