in the corner of Amanda's eye. Obviously, she'd been a lot more worried than she had let on. It made me think of my own mother. She was probably going out of her mind with worry. At least, she had Nana with her. Nothing could have scared Nana.
Telling her mother a final 'I love you' she hung up and tried to hide a sad smile.
"What’d she say?" Mark asked.
Ryan sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "She said, the power's out there, also. In fact, they received a report from the state's emergency center that the power is out across the state. Supposedly, several different power companies were hit by a virus. Other states are having problems, too.
"What!" Mark demanded.
My stomach dropped as I tried to swallow.
"She said they think it was some kind of terrorist attack. There are pockets of power, but they're few and far between. Also, that somehow the emergency generators didn't work like they were supposed to. The Hospital was without power and just recently got their generators working again."
"What does it mean?" I asked him, my mind running a million miles a minute trying to wrap my brain around the idea of the power being out everywhere at the same time.
"It means this is a lot worse than we thought. Now that she knows we're okay, Mom’s going to stay at the hospital again tonight, they're really shorthanded."
The four of us sat there in silence, each of us trying to figure out what to do. Did this mean school was canceled? What about my friends, did they know the power was gone everywhere? When would it be back on?
"Do you want to try and call your mom?" Ryan asked me holding out his phone.
For a second, I couldn't remember her number. Normally I just called up MOM on my phone and it dialed her number. I couldn't remember the last time I'd punched in her numbers. Somehow, I dragged the sequence out of some buried part of my brain and dialed her number.
My palms began to sweat as I waited for her to answer. What if the phones back east weren't fixed, yet. What if she'd already run down her battery or had her phone turned off to save her battery?
I swallowed hard and held my breath. The third ring was interrupted with a soft click and the beautiful sound of my mom's voice, "Hello?"
"Mom, it's me, Hailey," I blurted.
"Hailey! Are you okay honey? How'd you get through? Whose phone are you on? Where are you at? "
I sighed with relief. It felt so good to hear her voice. If she was asking questions, demanding answers, then things were all right. I explained the whole Ryan and Amanda situation.
Overall, the conversation went way better than I thought it would. My aunt Susan was doing better, but she wasn't out of the woods, yet. They had power, but a lot of the towns around them were down. We talked for a few more minutes, making sure each other was all right.
"I've got to go, I don't want to use up Ryan's battery."
"Okay honey," Mom said. There was a long pause as neither of us wanted to end the connection. Finally taking a deep breath, I started to hang up when I heard "Hailey ... Hailey, are you still there?"
"Yes Mom, I'm still here, but I've got to go."
"I know, I know. I just wanted to say, I love you."
My heart melted. "I love you too, Mom. Everything is going to be fine. Tell Nana I love her, too."
"Bye, bye honey."
I handed Ryan his phone back and stepped into the kitchen for a moment. Just when you thought you understood the world it had to screw it all up by having your mom be nice to you.
Chapter Seven
Hailey
I could feel the approaching darkness and sent up a silent prayer of thanks that Ryan and Amanda had taken me in. It looked like another night without power. Talking to my mom earlier had taken off the edge of worry and pulled me back from the brink of crazy vile.
I was helping put the Monopoly things away, Ryan had been right, they were competitive as hell. Amanda had won and been relentless in her smack talk. Both boys took it well and let her have her moment.
Ryan had announced that
K. Sterling
Jacquie Rogers
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley
Shiloh Walker
Elizabeth Moynihan
Mary Balogh
Tara Fox Hall
Jonathan Maberry
Jane Hunt
James Kakalios