Narrative: Calling Home Who: Alex White What: Calling Home Where: His trailer When: Now Warnings/Rating: None
He's got fingers firmly tangled in his hair as he dials the number from memory. It's the sort of thing most kids probably don't even know these days: their home phone number. But Alex had to learn because it wasn't like he grew up with a cell. It was calling the house phone to check in, on the rare occasion his parents remembered to give a shit. Ten digits, then the green send button. There's a long pause while it connects, and Alex thinks maybe he's getting off easy: the phone company's finally disconnected the Whites' home line for not paying, but then there's a click and breathing, and then: "'lo?"
Alex almost forgets how to speak, pacing back and forth in his trailer, throat dry and limbs feeling a little trembly like he's got a touch of the flu. No, he's never been close to his parents, but still. It's been over three years. "Moms?"
"Jack?" Comes the instant reply, because of course his mother would think of his older brother, first. "The hell you doin' callin' from the other room?" She shouts. "Get yer ass in here if you wanna talk to me!" He can hear the voice getting distant as his mother starts to hang up.
"Alex! It's Alex!" He shouts, voice cracking, hoping he can still be heard through the receiver as it travels further away from his mother's ear. There's a pause, and silence at the other end.
The click of disconnection doesn't come. He can hear heavy breathing as his mother lifts the phone again. "Alex," she says with a huff.
"Yeah, I--"
"You got a lotta fuckin' nerve callin' here after all this time, way you just up and left."
His face heats with shame. "Yeah look I know, I--"
"Shoulda known you'd call now."
"What?" He's so confused, and more than a little hurt. Like yeah, he expects anger but this tone seems deliberately hurtful. Hateful, even.
"The money, Stupid." Money? He's about to ask what money but then he hears another voice. Like his mother's but higher, sweeter. "Ma, I just got the baby down. You're gonna wake 'im with all that hollerin'."
Baby? Whatever she means by the money, it's forgotten. "Is that Annie? Lemme talk to her," he tells his mother.
"She ain't got nothin' to say to you neither." And then, from his sister: "Ma, who is it?"
"Who d'you think it is, girl? 'Nother leech who heard we won the lotto. Good fer nothin' brother of yours--"
"ALEX?" She shrieks. "Ma, you gotta lemme talk to him, you--"
"Put 'er on, please--"
"Botha y'all shut it!" His mother huffs and they both fall silent. "You--I know you still got packin' to do. Get to it. And you--" to Alex "--don't call here again." Click.
Alex sits down heavily on the bed, the silence of the disconnection still ringing in his ears. It's almost too much, like, he never expected the total rejection. The complete unwillingness to even try to talk, the dismissal, the anger and the hatred. What's happened, while he's been gone? He tries again, but it goes unanswered. Finally, he sighs and puts the phone away. He tries to read, to watch a movie, but he can't focus on anything else and just gives up, laying in bed and staring at the rusty ceiling.
Finally, as he's drifting off to sleep, his phone rings. It's late, but the number is not the same ten digits. But, the first six are the same, and his fingers are shaking as he swipes to answer. "Hello?"
"Ix?"
"Annie!" Jesus, but he'd forgotten all about that nickname for him. How long has it been since he heard her use it? It comes to him that he's not forgotten in the normal way, like a thing you just discarded because it never happened anymore, but legitimately forgotten, like it was something he never knew in the first place. Even when he'd literally been talking about nicknames not three months ago. Toddler tongues and multi-syllabic words, and it had stuck with her forever. But how can he have forgotten? Is it the dying? What other pieces of himself has he lost, of which he might not even be aware?
"Hey, I'm sorry about Ma. She's...bad lately. Dryin' out, you know?"
"Oh. Uh..." Suddenly he doesn't know what to say. "So that's good. Um, how you been?"
"Seriously? Like, that's what you ask? Three years, Ix. Jeezus. The hell you been doin'? Where are you? An' why'd you leave?"
The hurt; it cuts him, hard and deep, and it's worse than his mother's angry hate. Not surprising. But he tells her, or tries. Some of it, anyway. About how there was nothing in Rose, that he couldn't live like that anymore. About the comic shop. About Repose. About the people here, his friends. The things that are safe to tell.
"Y'ain't gonna tell me 'bout that guy, then?"
"What, Mal?" The answer is really too instinctive to make him feel comfortable.
She laughs. "Is Mal, like, your boy or somethin'? You've mentioned him like seven times already." No, he hasn't been talking about him that much, has he? "No, Stupid," and from her, it's fond. "The one from Iowa. The guy you caught."
"Oh, uh--"
"It was all over the news y'know. Your picture was on the TV an' everything and like, everyone here was talkin' 'bout it. So we knew you were okay. But Ma, she's angry, y'know. Still. Always was."
He sighs. "What did she mean, anyway? 'Bout the money?"
"Uhhh, yeahhh," she drawls out, actually sounding a little embarrassed. "So, we won the Idaho Lotto. Three million, can you believe it?"
"Holy shit," he breathes. "I mean, that's awesome."
"So, lotsa people callin', looking for money, y'know? But we're leavin' here. Leavin' Rose. We gotta nice house up in Coeur d'Alene, movin' next week. Real nice. We can even afford someone to watch the baby so I don't hafta quit school."
"Yeah," he says, suddenly, very pointedly. "Baby. Jesus Christ, Annie. You're...fifteen!" Fourteen, he'd thought, he'd said, but no, it'd been a couple months since her birthday, he remembers. "Who."
"Who what, Ix? Who's ass you gotta kick?" She laughs, and he can almost hear the mental shrug in her words. "It's fine. I like havin' a kid. He's a real cutie - I'll send you some pics. This your cellphone?"
"Yeah," he responds, feeling a little numb. But she's so damn young! It's like...so much. Too much. "Just...shit, like, tell me it was something you wanted to do."
"Sex? Like yeah, what the hell kinda question is that?"
"'kay, okay," he mutters. He just…he knows he has to make sure. "What's his name?"
"Wesley Wade," she tells him proudly. "Wesley Wade White, isn't that cool?"
Alex can't help but smile. He likes it. He...shit, he's an uncle for fuck's sake. "I love it," he says quietly. A beat. "Look, I was callin' 'cause I was worried about you, Annie." And maybe he was right to be. Or hell, maybe he's too late. "I was gonna try an' see if, I 'unno, you might wanna come live here."
"With you?" She's quiet for a long moment. "I...damn, Ix. You'da called 'fore I got knocked up and I'da said sure, but with the baby here, I mean, and...well, we're gonna be in a good place now."
So, too late then. "Right, I get it." He's trying to mask the disappointment, but he knows it's of his own making. And she's still getting out of Rose. That's something. She could have a good life, so could her kid. If she won't come, he can't force her, so that has to be enough, for now. "I just...fuck, I fucked up, Annie. I shoulda been there for you this whole time. I just..." He couldn't explain, not how he needed to. "Jus' tell me Jack's bein' better at it than me."
Again, that verbal shrug. "He's here, if that's what you mean. He's workin' as a mechanic. He's good with Wes. He's not you, but..." She's quiet for a moment, too. "I miss you, Ix. But now we c'n at least talk, so I don't gotta miss you as much. Even if Ma's pissed, an' I don't care if she is. You're my brother."
Alex wipes at his eyes. "Yeah," he agrees hoarsely. "I'll try to come see you like, when I can. Money's not...well, y'know. But I'll try, 'kay?"
"Yeah. An' till then, we got phones," she agrees.
"Yeah." Alex is smiling. Maybe it's not what he hoped for, but it's not the worst case scenario by a long shot. Even if Annie's a mom at fifteen. "So yeah," he says again. "Talk. Who."
And Annie just starts laughing at that. It takes some work, but eventually, later that night, she will tell him who the father of her child is. And Alex can't even be mad, or overprotective, because he's just thrilled to have his sister back. Even if they can't be together right now, they can be family again.