Home with My Sisters by Mary Carter

Author:Mary Carter [Carter, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2016-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

Austin was at the call center finishing up on paperwork when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen. It was a number he didn’t recognize. Could it be Josh?

“Hello?” There was a moment of silence. Austin lowered his voice and sank down into his cubicle. He cleared his throat and started again, treating it like the call came in through the switchboard. Hope must have given him the note. Josh might have confused which number to call. Austin took a chance and answered his cell the way he would have answered his work line. “Suicide Prevention. This is Austin. I’m glad you called.” There was another moment of silence.

“Why?” the caller said. It was a young male. Austin knew it was Josh. Hope had given him the note.

“Because you’re reaching out for help and that takes guts.”

“Whatever.”

Oh yes. Definitely Josh. “Are you feeling so bad that you’re thinking about suicide?”

“Maybe.”

“Have you thought about how you would do it?”

“It might just involve Christmas lights.”

Austin was glad to hear the sarcasm. That was actually a good sign. But he wasn’t going to laugh. He needed Josh to know that he took this very seriously. “You’re not alone. Christmas is a really tough time of year for a lot of people. I want to help you.”

“You’d want to kill yourself, too, if you had my family.”

Did Josh know he was talking to Austin, or did he think he’d called the main line? Austin would pretend it was anonymous unless and until Josh identified him. “What’s been going on?”

“How soon do you die if you fall through ice?”

“Are you near a body of water? Are you thinking about drowning yourself?” The pond. It would be frozen solid, so at least that was some relief.

There was a click and the line went dead. “Damn it,” Austin said under his breath. He stared at his cell phone hoping it would ring again. He knew Josh was in trouble. Something about the pained look in his eyes reminded him so much of his brother. Austin would have given anything if someone had recognized the warning signs in his brother and told him to pay attention.

What should he do now? He definitely didn’t want to say anything to Faith because she seemed like she could really tear into you given half a chance. He’d stop by Yvette’s place after work, see what was going on. Maybe he could get to know Josh a little bit more, see if he could get him to open up face-to-face. From what Austin could tell, Josh was in the early stages of pondering suicide. He still had time. If it got to a point where Austin felt like he had to break confidentiality to save Josh’s life, he would tell Hope what was going on. She could deal with her sister. At the thought of Hope, Austin’s heart beat a little faster. The more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to see her. He had to constantly remind himself that she wasn’t here because of him.

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