Chapter 8
The bathroom lock was a small silver push button. I turned it. It held.
I sat on the closed toilet lid. My feet were bare against the cold tile. The green gown clung damp to my knees. I could hear the diner beyond the door - plates, low talk, the cook calling order up.
My phone was at 2%. The screen kept dimming. I had three texts from Mark stacked on the lock screen. The newest from Evelyn underneath. I didn't open them.
I opened the thread with my sister. Maya.
I typed with my thumbs. My hands were shaking and the letters kept doubling. I deleted and retyped.
Maya im at diner on county road 9. Can you come get me. Mark outside. Phone dying.
I watched the bubble. Sending. The wheel turned. Then it said Delivered. Then she started typing back. Three dots appeared.
My chest lifted. Air came back in.
Her text came in: Sofia?? Are you okay where on 9??
I started typing answer. By the gas station diner with blue sign near
The screen went black.
I pressed the side button. Nothing. I pressed again and held it. A low battery icon flashed, then died again. 11:04 showed for half a second before it went dark. It died mid-word.
I stared at black glass. I tried the button again. Nothing happened. My breathing got shallow. I put phone against my forehead. It was warm.
I stayed like that for maybe thirty seconds. Then I unlocked the door.
The waitress was at the end of the hall carrying a tray. She was maybe fifty, gray hair pulled back, apron tied tight. Name tag said Linda. She'd been the one who let me into the bathroom without asking questions. She looked at my face, then at phone in my hand.
"Honey, you okay in there?" she said.
I nodded, then shook head. "My phone died," I said. I held it up. "Mid-text. To my sister."
She set tray down on the counter. "You need to make a call?"
"Could I borrow yours? Just for one text. Or a call. My sister was answering."
Linda didn't hesitate. She pulled her own phone from apron pocket, but then stopped. She looked toward front windows. I followed her eyes. Through the diner I could see the black sedan parked under the streetlight across the lot. Mark hadn't moved. He was leaning against the passenger door, arms crossed, looking at diner entrance. He wasn't coming in.
"He still out there?" she asked, quiet.
"Yes," I said.
She studied me - bare feet, wet gown, the way I held my belly with one hand without thinking. She didn't ask what happened at mansion. She just said, "Come on back here. Quieter."
She led me past the kitchen doorway into a small back room. It had a desk, a coat rack, a space heater, leftover boxes of napkins stacked against wall. A single bare bulb overhead. She shut the door halfway.
"You can sit," she said. She pulled out a metal folding chair. "You need water?"
"Please," I said. I sat. The chair was cold through gown.
She brought a paper cup of water and handed me her phone. "My cell's old, but it calls," she said. "Or I got the landline here. Gets better signal."
I tried to remember Maya's number by heart. I couldn't. I'd never memorized it. It was just in contacts. My throat tightened.
"I don't know her number," I said. "It's in my phone."
Linda nodded like she expected that. She opened desk drawer and pulled out a small laminated card. "We keep this taped by register," she said. "Sheriff non-emergency line. For when we need someone but not 911. They'll do welfare check, escort, whatever you need. No sirens unless you ask."
She slid card across desk. It read COUNTY SHERIFF - NON-EMERGENCY DISPATCH with a ten-digit number.
"911 feels like too much," I said.
"That's why we use this one," she said. "They'll send a deputy quiet. He can sit with you till your sister figures it out. Or give you a ride to the station where it's warm. You don't have to decide now."
I held her phone but didn't dial yet. My hands had stopped shaking a little. The heater ticked.
"Mark's my husband," I said. "He's not - he hasn't hit me tonight. He just won't let me leave. He took the keys."
Linda didn't flinch. "You don't need a bruise to need a deputy, honey," she said. She pulled the door a little more closed so kitchen noise dulled. "You stay in here as long as you want. He don't come in here without me saying so. You want me to call that number for you? Or you want to try your sister again on my phone with help looking up number?"
I looked at card, then at windowless back room wall, then at my dead phone on desk beside hers. No more texts would come through. No more battery. No more waiting for Maya's dots.
"Will you call them?" I asked. My voice was small.
May you like
Linda picked up the landline. "I will," she said. "You just sit. Breathe."
Outside the thin wall, the diner door chimed, but no one came down the hall. Through the small high window I could hear rain starting again, light this time, hitting the dumpster lid out back. Mark was still out front, waiting.
