Page 144 of First-Time Caller
“—and then he forgot he doesn’t have his car and Jackson has been on the air by himself for eight minutes.” She checks her watch and flinches. “Ten minutes. I need you to get in there until Aiden arrives.”
“What? No. I’m not doing the show anymore.”
Maggie pulls us to a stop in front of the booth. Through the glass window, I can see Jackson talking with his hands. His wild, panicked eyes shoot up to me.Help me, he mouths.
“He’s been talking about volcanic lightning for five minutes.
We live in Maryland, Lucie. There are no volcanoes.”
“Oh boy.”
“I need you to get in there.” Maggie urges me forward, a gentle tap on my back when I know she wants to press her palm between my shoulder blades and shove. I’ve never seen Maggie ruffled, but she seems ruffled right now. “Please.”
“Right now?”
She nods. “Right now. You’re the only one who can help us.”
God damn it. “What do you want me to talk about? Aiden usually has the show plan.”
“You can talk about whatever you want.” She pats me again with a little more force. “As long as it’s not volcanic lightning.”
Jackson lets out a wheezing gasp of relief as soon as I slip through the door, turning in Aiden’s chair and beckoning me forward with both hands. “Lucie is here! Oh, thank god, Lucie is here. Don’t worry, everyone. I won’t bore you with weather phenomena any longer.” His laugh is wild and borderline manic. “Lucie is here.”
“Yeah, I’m here.” I pat his shoulder and slip into the seat next to him. My seat, the one that hasn’t been moved out of the studio even though I haven’t been here for a week. Aiden’s kept my pilfered pen cup out too. The plastic Orioles one I stole from the break room.
It shouldn’t make me feel as good as it does.
I slip on the extra pair of headphones. The sound of the room becomes muffled and I’m anchored in the space. Just me and the city I love, waiting on the other side of the static. Some of my anxiety slips away. “Hello, everyone. It’s been a while.”
Jackson bends forward and rests his forehead against the desk, relief in the curve of his body. “Thanks for helping me out, Lucie.”
I pat his back and smile. “It’s no problem. Hopefully I’m only here for a few minutes before Aiden”—I stumble over his name, then quickly correct myself—”before Aiden gets here. Maggie said something about a bird in his roof gutter?”
Jackson turns his head and squints. “She said what?”
“A bird? She said he had an emergency with a bird stuck in his roof gutter?”
“I don’t know about any birds.” His eyes dart over my head. I turn to look. Maggie goes from gesturing wildly to smiling sedately through the glass. I’m either in the middle of an elaborate prank or the sleep deprivation is getting to me. Jackson clears his throat. “Oh, that’s right. The—the bird problem he’s been having. That’s right.” He pauses and blinks at me. “Should we take some calls?”
There’s something circling around my awareness. Too many people are insisting on too many things. There’s a piece I’m not seeing. Something out of alignment that’s clunking along.
“Sure,” I say, watching him out of the corner of my eye. “That’s fine.”
Jackson murmurs something under his breath and hesitantly presses a button.
“You’re onHeartstringswith Lucie and—”
“Oh my god!” a voice screeches on the other end, the decibel level high enough to have me flinching down in my chair. “I’ve been waiting to talk to you for, like, forever! Girl! Where have you been? Why did you leave the show? It was just getting good! I swear, you and Aiden have the best chem—”
The call cuts off abruptly. “Whoops,” Jackson says, hand hovering over the keyboard. “Looks like the call dropped.”
I stare pointedly at his thumb, resting next to the delete button. “It dropped, huh?”
“It dropped,” he repeats. He presses two shaking fingers to his temple, sweeping up to the middle of his forehead. His glasses slip down his nose. “Let’s try another one.”
He taps a button to take another caller and I brace myself for screeching. Instead, I hear a familiar voice drifting through the static.
“Mom?”
