“It’s making me sick. I wanna go home!”

“You mean like back to Mizzou?” Bess said.

Ellie retched. “I’m gonna puke!”

“No, don’t! You know I hate that smell. It makes me wanna puke!”

“Hush, Bess!” I said. This wasn’t about her.

The man started to turn away. He looked like he was in pain—from the sound?

And then, as she’d warned, Ellie vomited—not her breakfast but a long stream of bright red blood.

“Oh, no!” I cried, horrified. “Ellie, no!”

She dropped to her knees and did it again. So much blood…

And then she fell onto her side, but never took her hands off her ears.

“Make it stop, Mom,” she gasped, her face so white. “Make it stop!”

And then her eyelids fluttered and she passed out.

The stranger knelt and slipped his arms under Ellie’s back and knees. As he lifted her, he said, “Call 9-1-1!”

“What are you doing?” I screamed as he started carrying her away. “Put her down!”

“The sound’s not so loud up by the street,” he said.

“What sound?”

“You really don’t hear it?”

“No! And put her down!”

“Just follow me, lady. She’ll be better on the sidewalk.”

He increased his pace and I stared to scream for help.

“He’s taking my little girl! Someone stop him! Please, someone stop him!”

But people simply stared. No one moved to intervene, so I ran after him.

He reached the sidewalk and darted to the nearest bench where a young couple sat staring at their phones.

“Move-move-move!” he shouted

As they jumped up and stepped away, he laid Ellie on the bench and began slapping her cheeks—gently but insistent.

“Kid? Wake up, kid. The sound’s not so loud here.”

I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away, then pushed myself between them.

“Get away from her!”

“Did you call the EMTs?”

“I was too busy chasing you!”

He made a face as he pulled out his phone and stabbed at the keypad. After a few seconds he said, “Little girl vomiting blood at Sixty-Ninth and CPW,” then ended the call.

A moment later, Ellie woke up.

“The noise…”

I kissed her forehead. “It’s gone now?”

“No. But it not as loud. It’s not making me sick anymore.”

I looked up and met the stranger’s concerned eyes. I realized he’d only been trying to help.

“Thank you. I’m sorry I panicked. I just—”

He shrugged and smiled. “A strange man carrying my daughter off? I’d panic too.”

“But what’s this sound she’s talking about? I thought it was all in her head, but you seem to hear it too.”

He looked from Bess to me. “And you don’t? Neither of you?” When we both shook our heads he turned to the small crowd that had gathered out of nowhere. “Who here hears that noise, that loud low hum?”

Not one person raised a hand. They looked at him like he was crazy.

“What is it?” I said. “Where does it come from?”

He shrugged. “Wish I knew. Heard it Friday, now again today.”