Supernatural Dreams

Leona, Eli’s ex-wife, on the other side, was going crazy. He wasn’t answering the phone. Where the hell was he? Not that she cared all that much, but she had to speak to him.

The waiting was terrible; it was killing her. Her legs couldn’t hold her still as she paced from one corner of the kitchen to the other.

‘Was he sick? What if he had taken his own life out of depression? What would she do? Was he okay?’ God, this waiting was killing her more than anything else.

She tried calling again for the twenty-second time, but suddenly the ringing stopped. Disbelieving, she stared closely at her phone screen as the seconds ticked. A heavy breath came through on the other end, followed by his hoarse, sleepy voice: “Hello? Who is this?”

Furious, she yanked the phone from speaker mode and put it to her ear. “Who is this? Who is this? Did you forget my voice that quickly? Who else would it be?! It’s Leona. I’ve called you a hundred times; why the hell aren’t you answering? Do you think I’m the only one who’s going to deal with these kids? Where are you?”

On the other end, Eli’s voice was silent. Leona continued, “Didn’t your son tell you what happened at school when he spoke with you today?”

His faint voice came through the phone: “Why? What happened? Is he alright?”

With irony, she replied, “Oh sure, he’s fine, but one of his classmates isn’t.”

Feeling confused, he said, “What does his classmate have to do with anything? I don’t understand.”

“He hit him! Don’t you get it?! Our son hit him!” she raised her voice angrily.

Surprised that his son might have done this, he murmured, “Matteo hit someone? Why? What happened?”

“Oh, no, no. It wasn’t Matteo, it was Flavio,” she quickly corrected him.

“Flavio?! Flavio is still young. How could he do something like that?” His astonishment kept growing. He scratched his head on the other end of the phone, wiping the drool that had fallen while he slept.

“That’s what I thought too; how? Why? But he’s not talking.”

“Yeah…”

A cold, indifferent response hit Ona even harder.

“What do you mean, ‘yeah’? Is that all you have to say? Talk to him! Meet him after school tomorrow—I’ll let you meet him. Just the two of you. I’ll pick up Matteo later. See if he opens up to you because, with me, it was pointless. Okay?”

“All right. I’ll talk to him.”

Trying to say something more, he hesitated for a moment.

“Um, thank you for telling me.”