But they offered her fifty grand. Jesus Christ. That was more than I made in a year. Cally thought I was “threatened” by that. Bullshit. She claimed it wasn’t just about the huge fee. I didn’t believe her. We argued about that. Cally said this was something she could do that I couldn’t. Like she was better than me. That really pissed me off, and I lost it. I’d been hanging out at her place. I might have thrown some shit. She told me to go and never come back. So I grabbed my stuff and left.

We didn’t talk again. I honestly didn’t think she’d go through with it. I thought it was worse than a bad idea. She didn’t care what I thought, though. She was gonna do what she was gonna do. And I had to take care of myself. My uncle offered me construction work out of state. Good pay. So I went to Missouri for the summer. She stayed in Minnesota.

Months went by and we lost touch.

And then, out of the blue, she asked for the ride. I’d been back a couple of months when she called. She left a message with my roommate, who gave me a look when he passed it on. He thought I should stay away. Ignore it. I might have said some things to him about her in the past. He thought she was jerking me around. Using me. My roommate was a good guy; he was trying to look out for me.

I called her back. She said she liked hearing my voice. I said what’s up. She said she was in the hospital. “Why? Are you sick?” I said. I was surprised to hear that. I worried about her even though we weren’t together. I didn’t want her to be sick.

“No, I’m fine,” she said, but she didn’t tell me she’d had a goddamn kid. She just said she wanted to go but the doctors wouldn’t let her.

“Why won’t they let you?” I asked. It didn’t make sense. “Maybe you’re sicker than you think. Are you sure?”

She said she was definitely okay, and the doctors were just being pussies. She said she really needed to get the hell out of there.

Fine, I said. I’d pick her up.