My mind blanked. \u201cWhat do you mean, you think you broke it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI fell yesterday,\u201d she replied. \u201cOn the stairs at that old palace place. Yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sank slowly back into my chair, like gravity had suddenly doubled. \u201cYesterday? Who\u2019s looked at it? Where is everyone?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Mark,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2026 they didn\u2019t think it looked that bad. It wasn\u2019t really swollen at first. They figured it was just bruising.\u201d<\/p>\n
I blinked, the information failing to compute. \u201cSo\u2026 they didn\u2019t take you anywhere? To a doctor?\u201d<\/p>\n
She shook her head, her hair falling over her face. \u201cNo. We kept going. I just\u2026 walked through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I shut my eyes, a cold sickness rising in my stomach. \u201cHow long, Sophie? How long did you walk?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree hours? Maybe more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree\u2026 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded, finally looking at me. \u201cThey told me I was overreacting.\u201d<\/p>\n
That line. That classic, familiar line. \u201cThey said I\u2019d feel better once the tour was over,\u201d she added, her tone so casual it made me want to scream. \u201cAnd now\u2026 now it hurts a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n
My voice was ice. \u201cWhere are they now, Sophie?\u201d She hesitated, and that\u2019s when I knew. \u201cOut. They\u2026 they said I could stay at the hotel and rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
I froze. \u201cYou\u2019re by yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded again, a small, jerky motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn another state. Alone.\u201d I stared at the screen, at my child, who was clearly in agonizing pain and had been abandoned.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey,\u201d I said, my voice sharp, professional. \u201cDon\u2019t move. I\u2019m coming to get you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat? Mom, you don\u2019t have to\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do. But you\u2019d have to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m aware.\u201d<\/p>\n
She blinked. \u201cYou haven\u2019t flown since\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d I was already on my laptop, my fingers flying across the keys. \u201cI\u2019m already checking flights.\u201d<\/p>\n
This time, she didn\u2019t argue. Her voice grew quiet. \u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n
I hung up. I found one flight. One single, non-stop seat, leaving in 90 minutes. There was no time for fear. No time for logic. No time for anything but motion. I booked it.<\/p>\n
Then I called my parents. Voicemail. Tried again. Voicemail. I called Mark. He answered, chipper. \u201cHey, Erica! How\u2019s it going?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou left Sophie alone in a hotel room with a possibly broken leg.\u201d<\/p>\n
The chipper tone vanished. \u201cWhoa, hold on. She said she was fine. She\u2019s 15, she can\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe can\u2019t walk, Mark. She told you it hurt yesterday, and you made her walk for three hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t make her. She\u2019s always been a little sensitive, come on. It\u2019s probably just a sprain. The swelling didn\u2019t even start until last night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSensitive,\u201d I repeated. The word felt like acid on my tongue. \u201cYou saw her leg and you left her alone because she \u2018couldn\u2019t move\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
He sighed, a sound of pure, unadulterated annoyance. \u201cYou\u2019re blowing this out of proportion. Just like you always do.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was. Always. Me. Her. I hung up without another word. I didn\u2019t have time to shout.<\/p>\n
I grabbed my bag, shut my laptop, and bolted. My boss looked up as I burst into his office, halfway out the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamily emergency,\u201d I said. \u201cI have to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of emergency?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kind where I leave right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He frowned. \u201cYou were just assigned\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know. I\u2019m sorry.\u201d I didn\u2019t wait to hear the rest. I was already in the elevator, booking a cab. In the cab, I texted Sophie. I\u2019m coming. Don\u2019t take anything. Stay in bed.<\/p>\n
She replied with a single heart emoji. I stared at that tiny red heart the whole ride to the airport, a single point of focus in a sea of rising panic.<\/p>\n
I ran. Through check-in, through security. Sweaty, disoriented, fighting the irrational, screaming itch in my brain to turn back, to get on solid ground. But I didn\u2019t. I ran like I was being chased.<\/p>\n
Maybe I was. Chased by the ghost of every time I\u2019d been told I was too sensitive, too much, too scared.<\/p>\n
I made it to the gate with minutes to spare. No checked bags, no clean shirt, just me, my credit card, and a phobia I didn\u2019t have time to entertain.<\/p>\n
I hate flying. I really, really hate it. But I hate what they did to her more. So, I boarded the plane. I didn\u2019t shout. Not yet. But four days later, they were the ones screaming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My mind blanked. \u201cWhat do you mean, you think you broke it?\u201d \u201cI fell yesterday,\u201d she replied. \u201cOn the stairs at that old palace place. Yesterday.\u201d I sank slowly back into my chair, like gravity had suddenly doubled. \u201cYesterday? Who\u2019s looked at it? Where is everyone?\u201d \u201cGrandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Mark,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2026 they … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4232,"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4224\/revisions\/4232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factznews.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}