Call Me Mum

Kira’s body was exhausted. It had been a long day. But she was also too keyed up to fall asleep. Austyn had confiscated her phone and locked it in a nightstand drawer. Kira played with her fingers and wondered what the baby would look like. She hoped their child would have Austyn’s height. She didn’t want him or her to be called ‘Shortie’ like she was during middle school. Austyn’s suit jacket was draped over a chair near the bed. It lit up and started to vibrate. Kira almost jumped out of her skin. Then she realised it was the phone. The ringtone had changed from the classic ‘brring brring’ of a bell to a persistent ‘beep beep beep.’ Kira waited for the call to go to voicemail, but it never did. The ‘beep beep beep’ was starting to sound like ‘pick up, pick up, pick up.’ Kira flung the quilt aside and got out of bed. She hesitated before removing the phone from Austyn’s jacket. ‘I’m not snooping,’ she said to herself. ‘What if it’s something urgent?’ She dreaded seeing Deborah’s name