Done in Fifteen Years novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: Speakerphone

Nobody in Vernie's said a word.

The TV went to a commercial for a truck dealership.

Vernie reached over and turned it off with one finger.

"Well," she said to the room. "Anybody here need ten thousand dollars?"

The tube-rental man scratched his neck.

"I've ate at Kilgore's," he said. "I wouldn't give that place ten dollars."

One of the lawn-chair ladies sniffed.

"It's gone downhill since that boy started doing the commercials."

She sat on her stool with her hands in her lap, staring at the dark TV.

"He said you're not well."

"I heard."

"You're the most well person I know. You get up at four."

"That's not the same thing, baby."

"He said you took me." Her voice went up. "Nobody took me. I got in the truck."

She looked at the old black phone on the wall by the kitchen door.

"I want to call him."

Deke and I looked at each other.

"Phones can be traced," Deke said carefully.

"Landlines, too?"

"Landlines show a number."

Macey looked at him.

"So block it."

Deke got up, took the receiver off the wall and dialed star sixty-seven.

He handed it to her.

She dialed her daddy's cell from memory and pushed the speaker button.

It rang four times.

"Who is this?"

"It's me."

"Mace." His voice went soft and warm, his TV voice. "Baby, where are you? Are you safe? Is she there?"

"I'm safe. I'm calling to tell you I chose to go. She didn't take me. Tell the news people that."

There was a pause.

When Darrell talked again, the warmth was gone.

"Is she listening?"

Macey glanced at me.

"No," she lied.

"Then listen to me. Your mother is a cook. She's a cook with no money and no truck, and by Friday she's going to be on your grandmother's porch begging. You don't want to be with her when that happens."

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