She Discovered Too Late novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Drawer

Miriam did not knock on the door of room 612.

She walked in with the laptop open on her arm and the drive in her fist.

Colby was propped on pillows with the IV in his hand. Our uncle sat beside him in the visitor's chair, holding a cup of tea.

He was our father's older brother, and he had held Colby's hand so many times that the nurses no longer asked who he was.

"Miriam," the uncle said. "He's resting. The doctor said he isn't to be upset."

"Stay where you are, Uncle."

She set the laptop on the tray table and turned the volume all the way up.

"Miri, what's this?" Colby said.

She pressed play.

The tinny rush of static filled the room.

"Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?"

"My sister won't wake up."

The uncle's cup stopped halfway to his mouth.

The boy's voice climbed and cracked, and it said the address, and it said its own name.

Colby's eyes did not leave the screen.

Two nurses stopped in the doorway. Nobody sent them away.

When the recording reached the dispatcher's question about anyone else in the house, Miriam reached out and touched a key.

"Colby's asleep upstairs," the boy said, again, from the speaker.

She let it run to the end.

A stretcher rolled, and the other voice said, clear and calm, "I found her. I'm her brother."

The recording clicked off.

For a while the only sound was the IV pump.

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