Freefall by Anna Levine

Author:Anna Levine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Array
Publisher: HarperCollins

Chapter Eleven

“Hey, sleepyhead, you have a call.”

I roll over, yawn, and stretch. Hadas’s copy of The Alchemist falls to the floor. I’ve lost my place. “Who is it?” I mumble, my face squished deep in the pillow.

“Do I look like your secretary?”

I open one eye. Hila is standing at the door of my room wearing a long jeans skirt, a white T-shirt with sleeves to her elbows, and scruffy running shoes. Anywhere else in the world she’d be a fashion disaster.

“No, not a secretary. You look more like the girls who live on the next block across from the synagogue. All you’re missing is a book of psalms in your hand and you’d fit right in.”

“Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

I don’t argue with her.

She sighs. “Isn’t it about time you’ve started doing something with these few months left before your draft?”

I pull the blankets over my head.

She grunts disapprovingly. “Well, what should I tell him?” she asks impatiently.

“Who?” I peek out.

She shrugs. “The reception is terrible. It’s a guy. Probably Ben, again.”

I consider ignoring her and Ben, but instead I pull my quilt over my shoulders and shuffle to the phone in the living room. Curling up on the wicker love seat that once belonged to Grandma, I pull the phone over, wondering why Ben couldn’t have called my cell phone and saved me the trip out of bed. He didn’t like hearing that what he thought was going to happen wasn’t on my “to-do” list before being drafted, and how I thought the timing for us was all wrong.

“Hey,” I say, clearing my voice. “What’s up?”

Hila walks by and makes kissing noises. I give her a nasty look.

There’s static on the line. A couple of crackles. Silence.

“Ben?”

“No, not Ben,” says the raspy voice. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Noah!” My voice, still raw with sleep, croaks. “How are you?”

“Okay …and you?”

My face flushes. “Fine. But I’m surprised to hear from you.”

“Good surprised?”

“Of course!”

Crackle. Static. I’m not sure if it’s the phone line or Noah thinking of what to say.

“Really?” he says. “And I thought . . .”

“What?”

“Never mind.” Static.

I wonder why he’s calling me. Shira groans whenever I ask about him. “He’s so busy. Doesn’t have a second to breathe. He comes home long enough to kick off his boots, throw his uniform in the washing machine, sleep for twelve hours, eat anything worth eating in the house, ask what’s up with me, throw one question in about you, and go back to his base.”

“About me?”

“Yeah. Always asks if you’ve heard from the army about where they’re placing you—as if you’re the first woman ever to get into a combat unit. Do you believe him butting into my life? I’ve told him more than once to mind his own business.”

Laughter. His raspy-voiced chuckle snaps me back. I giggle. Stop. Realize I must sound so childish.

Hila pops her head back into the room, her eyebrows raised.

“What?” I mouth to her.

“Noah?” she says. She smiles and gives me a thumbs-up.

“I’ll speak to you later,” I tell her, cupping my hand slightly over the phone.

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