“Please. Please? Just stay here.” Carly held her mother’s arm, but her mother turned to her and pulled her into a hug.

“Sweetheart, I need to go back. It’ll be okay. John’s all alone over there. It’s horrible.” But Donna clung to Carly as if she didn’t want to let go.

Carly had an in, maybe. A quick opportunity. The right arguments, in the right order, could be tumblers in a lock. “The ambulance will be there any minute. In just a few more minutes, he won’t be alone. Maybe even before you can get there. Then we can go back together. We could both be there. For him. But I want to go back with you.”

Her mother petted Carly’s hair, hesitation in her stroke.

So Carly kept at it. “There’s no reason for you to be there right now. You’ll just be in the way. I don’t mean that in a bad way! I mean, your car will literally be in the way. Please?”

“Honey, I have to go. I can’t just leave him there with this. I can’t do that to him.” Donna peeled herself out of the hug. “It’s not right. I’ll be back to get you as soon as they’ve taken that guy to the hospital, okay?”

Carly shouldn’t have said there was no reason. That was a dumb mistake. The chance was passed. It was pointless to fight it.

And there still weren’t any sirens.

“Okay,” said Carly. “I just need to get something out of the car.”

So, for the second time that day, Carly silenced her notifications and slid her phone into the pocket behind the driver’s seat. Just to see.

Ada was skeptical when Carly suggested they check where exactly her phone was.

“Now you forgot it in your mom’s car?”

“It’s been a superweird day. Gimme a break. I just want to see if John makes them go to the hospital with that guy. I wanted to be there, not here. No offense. This is freaking me out.”

Her mother’s car didn’t go to the hospital. But it didn’t stay at home either.

Carly didn’t want Ada to know that. She put her back against the wall and held the phone up at an inconvenient angle.

It didn’t take long for Ada to lose interest in watching Carly watch the phone. She flopped back on the bed with a peevish “Whatever.” The ceiling didn’t hold her attention for long either. Ada picked up her ukulele and made the background music to the long movie of Carly tracking the little bubble with her own face on it, scrolling along, dragging the blue line over the map for twenty-two minutes.