Burnout by Christy Hadfield

Author:Christy Hadfield [Hadfield, Christy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Christy Hadfield Publications
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Nearly an hour passed. Michael and I made fart noises. We played every hand clapping game I could remember or make up on the spot. I even took Michael to the bathroom twice without issue. Thirty minutes into that hour, I texted Amelia for an update, but she never responded. I had no idea what was happening, so I just kept playing with Michael like my life depended on it.

When I ran out of games from my childhood to share, I found some kid friendly games that I downloaded onto my phone for Michael to play. We shared cookies, taking turns munching until only a few crumbs remained. I was starting to wonder if I should ask a nurse for an update—as I still hadn’t heard from Amelia—when my phone started ringing. It was Piper.

“Hang on one sec,” I said, taking my phone back from Michael. “I’ve got to talk to Piper.”

Michael smiled and cooed, “Aunt Piper?”

“Yep,” I answered, nodding. I pulled the phone to my ear. “Piper, what’s up?”

“I should be asking you that,” Piper replied. “I’m hoping you’re more in the loop than we are.”

“Oh, yeah I didn’t really think to text you. Everything happened so suddenly. Did Eleanor call you too, or did Amelia after we got here?”

“We haven’t heard anything from either of them,” Piper stated. “No, we found out from Adam. I called Karmen—we don’t know what’s happening—but she didn’t answer. I called Eleanor and Amelia too, but nothing. You’re the only one who actually picked up. Oh, wait, Ellie’s here too. Hang on, I’m putting you on speaker. Okay, there, can you hear me?”

“Hey, Natalie,” Ellie 2.0 greeted me.

“Hey,” I responded. “Okay, well, what do you guys know?”

“Well, twenty minutes ago, Adam just showed up banging on Ellie’s door. He seemed pretty mad and kept implying that we were hiding Karmen from him.”

“We didn’t have any idea what he was talking about,” Ellie 2.0 added. “But he was getting a bit hostile, so Cliff told him he needed to leave.”

“We couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was going on about… something about trouble and Karmen getting hurt and everything kept escalating.”

“He was really freaking out,” Ellie 2.0 muttered. “He was frantic to find Karmen, really. He tried to shove past Piper and get into the house, but that was when Cliff stepped in. He grabbed a hold of Adam and said that if Adam laid a hand on either of us again, he was going to call the cops.”

“Then he ran off,” Piper concluded. “But clearly something wasn’t right, which was why we started calling everyone, trying to figure out what happened.”

“I don’t really know much more, all I know is that Adam hit—” I stopped talking abruptly and looked over at Michael who was, to the best of his ability, trying to follow my side of the conversation. “Hey, um, I’m watching Michael, I don’t want to say—”

“No, you’re right, don’t talk,” Piper agreed. “We’ll piece it together. Did Adam hit Karmen?”

“That’s what Eleanor said.

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