Chapter 2 - HE EMBARRASSED US
I answered only because Dr. Hayes was standing beside me.
The call remained on speaker.
Nathan did not ask whether Oliver was safe.
He did not ask why we were in the emergency room.
He sounded irritated.
“You’re turning this into something it wasn’t.”
“Oliver’s body temperature was 94.2.”
“He was outside for a little while.”
“In five-degree weather.”
“He embarrassed us. We finished dinner before letting him back inside.”
Nurse Carter stopped writing.
Dr. Hayes looked directly at the phone.
“What did a six-year-old child do that required being locked outside?” I asked.
Nathan exhaled.
“He had a tantrum. My mother told him to apologize. He refused.”
Oliver began shaking harder beneath the blanket.
“I didn’t have a tantrum,” he whispered.
Nathan heard him.
“Oliver, stop lying to your mother.”
My son recoiled as if his father had entered the room.
Dr. Hayes reached over and ended the call.
“We need to limit his stress,” he said.
Nurse Carter gently opened Oliver’s coat while checking whether any wet clothing remained underneath. From one pocket she pulled a damp glove wrapped around a small black restaurant pager.
The plastic casing had cracked near one corner.
The device vibrated suddenly in her hand.
Oliver jerked away.
“No.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s only a pager.”
He shook his head frantically.
“Grandma said it could hear me.”
The room became still.
Dr. Hayes took the device without opening it. Through the cracked casing, a tiny red light blinked beside a component that did not look like part of an ordinary restaurant buzzer.
“What did she mean?” I asked.
Oliver’s eyes filled.
“They told me to say something. I wouldn’t.”
“What did they want you to say?”
He looked toward the door as if Nathan might still be outside.
“That you scare me.”
The pager vibrated again.
May you like
Then the red light stopped.
At the exact same moment, Nathan stopped calling.
