Emergency

 

 

On the walk home from school Alex spies the beyond-blue phone booth and for some reason steps inside.

 

There he will wait patiently for a call that will never come.

 

There his eyes will dare to glaze momentarily, spiked with shiny splotches before being rescinded, swallowed back reflexively to that place inside where all bad things are buried, heaped upon a pyre of silence and shame.

 

There he will dial 9-1-1 only to hang up, unable to articulate the specific nature of his emergency.