She picked up on the third ring.
"Mia."
Just my name. No hello, no who is this after two years of silence. Just my name in a voice that hadn't changed at all and something in my chest came loose immediately.
"Hey," I said.
"Hey yourself." A pause, warm and unhurried. "It's almost eleven."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize." I heard her settle into something, a couch maybe, the quiet sound of a woman making herself comfortable for however long this was going to take. "I've been waiting for this call honestly. Not tonight specifically but I always knew you'd call eventually." A small pause. "Talk to me."
So I talked.
I told her about Eli first. The hospital, the three weeks, the tests that kept raising more questions than they answered. The dragon book voices and the stuffed bear
