A Son's Tale

The vibration signaled a text from Julie Warren, the office administrator at Rouse Elementary where Sammie was in summer school taking art and swimming. Julie was also Morgan’s friend.

The message was one word: Call.

They had a lunch date. Maybe Julie had to cancel. Wouldn’t be the first time.

She typed her response.

In class. Emergency?

She sent the text off with one hand, leaving the phone in its clip.

The reply was almost instantaneous. Like Julie hadn’t waited for her reply before sending it.

S missing!

The phone vibrated again, but Morgan didn’t take the time to look down. Closing the lid on her notebook computer without shutting the thing down, she threw it on top of its case in her backpack. She had the bag slung on her shoulder before she was completely standing and was already digging in the side pocket for her car keys.

“My son…” She wasn’t even sure what she ended up blurting out as she ran from the room.

CHAPTER TWO

SILENCE HUNG OVER the classroom for thirty seconds or more after Morgan Lowen’s dash from the room. Her frantic words—“My son is missing from school!”—occupied the space, squeezing out all the excess air.

And then the rumbling started—low voices emanating from seats all across the room. His students’ wide-eyed glances darted between one another, the door, him. One kid—“Jackass,” Cal had privately dubbed him—sat there staring at his electronic tablet, looking bored. That’s when Cal noticed the wireless device mostly concealed by the kid’s long, unkempt hair. He had an earphone in. And was listening to God knew what on Cal’s time.

“Class dismissed,” Cal said, filing away a mental reminder to pursue wireless Jackass at some future date.

Yeah, this was college. Yeah, students were responsible for their own education at this point. But he had more to teach than knowledge of American literature. He had the minds of tomorrow in his sphere and he took his job seriously.

He answered a couple of questions about a two-thousand-word paper due at midterm and confirmed that they’d be covering The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn all of the following week as the syllabus stated.

“You think her kid’s going to be okay?” Bella was standing by the long table that served as his desk at the front of the window-lined classroom.

“I do,” Cal said, ignoring the thread of alarm trying to take up residence within him. “She said he was missing from school. He’s probably just playing hooky. Or hiding out with a friend in the bathroom. It’s summer school so things are a little less strict and kids have more of a tendency to roam.”

“Some jerks once locked my little brother in his locker,” Bella said, sliding her electronic notebook into her backpack. “He was there for an hour before anyone knew he was missing.”

“His teachers didn’t miss him?”

“They had a sub and it was during lunch break.”

And someone should have noticed he was gone. Like they’d obviously noticed Morgan Lowen’s son was missing.

“They should check the lockers for him,” Bella added, standing in front of him with her backpack slung over one shoulder.

“I’m sure they’ll find him.” Cal slid a couple of folders, notes, into his soft-sided leather briefcase.

“I didn’t even know she had a son.”

Cal had. He knew, too, that she’d given birth to and raised the boy completely on her own, but he wasn’t going to gossip about another student. What he wanted to do was get back to his office in case she contacted him. He and Morgan had never crossed the line between teacher and student; he’d kept his interest in her completely professional, but he’d be kidding himself if he said he wasn’t attracted to her.

And Cal did not kid himself. He couldn’t afford the luxury.

Morgan had been having some troubles with her son. He knew because she’d missed class in the spring due to some antics the boy had pulled at school.

He hoped she’d also let him know that Sammie was fine.

“She doesn’t wear a wedding ring.” Bella was still standing there.