“Hello? This is Linda.”
“Hi, Ms. Carter, it’s Susan, the school nurse.” Her voice was soft, that practiced calm that nurses use when they’re trying not to alarm parents, but my stomach tightened into painful knots anyway. “I’m so sorry to bother you at work, but Max isn’t feeling well. He threw up in the cafeteria during lunch, poor thing. He’s running a fever—101.9 when I checked a few minutes ago. He’s resting in the nurse’s office now, but he’s been asking for you.”
My fingers dug into the phone case hard enough to hurt. “What happened? Is he okay? Did he hit his head?”
“No head injury, nothing like that. Just seems to be a stomach bug. But the fever’s pretty high and he’s quite miserable. He really wants his mom.”
My mind tried to split itself in two directions. One part pulled toward my little boy, hot and miserable and scared on that narrow vinyl cot in the nurse’s office. The other part pulled back toward the conference room behind me, the unfinished presentation, the way my boss would look when I walked back in and said I had to leave immediately, again.
Max won in half a second. Of course he did. He always would.
“I’m coming right now,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “I’m so sorry they couldn’t reach me sooner—my phone was on silent for the meeting. Did you try calling his dad?”
“We did,” Susan said carefully, and I heard the slight hesitation in her voice. “We went down the emergency contact list. We tried you first, then Mr. Carter, and when we didn’t get an answer from either of you right away, we called your mother.” She paused, like she wasn’t entirely sure she should repeat what came next. “She said she couldn’t come. That she was busy. I’m sorry.”
I swallowed hard, the taste in my mouth suddenly metallic and bitter. “I’ll be there as fast as I can. Please tell Max I’m on my way.”
I grabbed my bag, already texting my manager, a single thought pounding through my head: Get to Max.
