• Trent picked up the phone from the desk and took a deep breath, taking a reassuring glance from August.

    “Are you sure?” He asked, hands hovering over the buttons of the base.

    “You said you weren’t going to hesitate.” August pointed out and smirked a smug grin.
    Trent gave her a short glare and picked out the numbers, then watched out the window as the ringing started.

    Once, twice…


    Ana woke quickly and searched frantically for the source of the annoying ringing. Finally, her gaze settled on the telephone and its blinking earpiece.

    She scrambled from under the covers and rolled onto the floor, then ran to the phone and hit the speaker button. After sighing in relief at the sudden silence, she breathed a hello.

    “Ana?” Trent’s voice echoed through the room. She nodded once and pulled her short hair out of her face.

    “Yeah?”

    “I have news.”

    Ana paused, holding the hair from her eyes. “Good or bad?”

    “You take your pick.”

    Silence.

    “You have good news and bad news?” She asked with confusion.

    “No, just news.”

    “Trent, is this some practical joke? Just tell me already?”

    Trent took a deep breath on the other end of the phone.

    “Ana?”

    “Trent?” She retorted to the phone’s base.

    “We have a daughter.”

    Too surprised to laugh at Trent’s obvious joke, Ana sat in silence.

    “You still there?” The base asked quietly.

    “Absolutely not. Trent, that’s not funny—“

    “Her name’s August.”

    “Trent, really—“

    “She’s twelve years old.”

    “Trent!!” Ana screamed and threw herself to her knees.

    The line fell silent, waiting for Ana to continue.

    “Trent Bryan, I sweat, if you’re lying to me or pulling some awful prank, I swear you will not wake up in the morning.”

    The phone waited patiently.

    “You’re not lying?” Ana asked almost silently, only a whisper of air escaping her lips.

    “Would you like to talk to her?” Trent asked just as quietly.

    Ana nodded slowly, and whimpered a simple, “Yes.”

    The phone clicked as it was passed from one ear to the next, and soon a musical voice filled the cramped living room.

    “Is this Ana?” The person talking didn’t sound more than nine years old, yet the words were pronounced perfectly as if spoken by an adult.

    “It is.” Ana said, on the brink of tears.

    The line went silent for a moment, but then no more sounds came from the other end, as if the whole world had gone silent.

    “Hello?” Ana asked with a panicked tone, sitting forward from her seat on the ground.

    “Hello?” The small voice repeated.

    “Oh my god, I thought you hung up on me.” She sat back, heaving a sigh of relief.

    “No, I couldn’t hang up on such a pretty voice. Trent’s told me a lot about you, and it sounds like he really loves you. I wish I had someone like Trent; he’s such an amazing person. You’re lucky to have him, Ana.”

    Ana touched her cheek carefully, feeling how wet they had grown.

    “I know how lucky I am.” Ana murmured quietly.

    “Why are you crying, Ana?” The girl asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

    Ana blinked in surprise and wiped furiously at her face, but the old tears were replaced by fresh ones.

    “I’m not crying.” Ana insisted and sniffled, mopping at her face with the sleeve of her robe.

    “Ana, don’t lie.” The voice trailed off, then Trent’s soft voice could be heard faintly through Ana’s receiver.

    “Hold on a minute, Ana? I’m sorry.” The line went dead, the dial tone filling the air. Ana leaned forward and switched off the phone, then cowered against the foot of the couch with her eyes plastered on the base.

    For about ten minutes, Ana was frozen in place, her fingers wrapped in a death-grip around the hem of her robe. She felt a pang of jealousy; Trent was talking to the beautiful voice that claimed to be her daughter. Her daughter. The girl, August as Trent had called her, had been polite, but had a strange feeling about her that Ana could not explain. And how had she known that Ana was crying?

    Why was I crying? That was totally ridiculous, I was crying for no reason at all. Ana felt her face again. It was stiff from the dried salt of her tears, which made it difficult to blink and move her face in the slightest bit.

    But I was crying for something. Ana realized and loosened her grip on the robe. I was… scared, scared for the first time in a long time. Scared? No, it couldn’t be scared, surely not scared. Why should I be scared of a little girl? She lowered her head to her lap and sat still for a moment, pondering any alternate reason, not finding anything logical.

    The phone’s sharp ringing shocked her out of her thoughts, and her head whipped again to the receiver.

    She let it ring twice, then lurched forward to punch the speaker.

    “I’m sorry, Ana, that was foolish of me.” August’s voice rang in Ana’s ears. Suddenly, Ana felt herself relax against the couch again at the sound Ana had almost convinced herself wasn’t real.

    “What was foolish, honey?” Ana asked after a brief silence. The nickname seemed to fit, but she could immediately feel the uncomfortable aura on the other end of the line.

    Not honey, then. Ana scratched the nickname from the short list in her head and waited for August’s response.

    “I… erm… hung up on accident. It was just so strange to finally hear your voice and I just got surprised and didn’t know what to say. It was simply foolish of me, Ana, and I apologize.”