Somewhere In Brooklyn

Chapter 45

January 6, 2018

Dale woke up past three in the morning due to the constant buzzing of his phone.

His heart raced when he saw Althea's name flashed on his screen and he answered it immediately. Althea was crying, greeting him by apologizing for waking him up. He lied and said he'd been awake for hours, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes and stifling a yawn.

"A-Are you alright? What... what ha-happened?" Dale stood abruptly from his bed to get dressed, in case he ever needed to leave for her. She must heard him stumble and curse because she told him not to worry, which didn't do anything to his frantically beating heart. He hesitantly sat down and repeated his questions.

Althea didn't say anything. She just cried.

For almost half an hour, Dale listened to her cries. For almost half an hour, he silently cried with her because he couldn't do anything to help her, aside from the occasional humming of her favorite songs and sharing the little anecdotes and poems he'd written before.

His mind was whirling, his heart was pumping. He felt like he was burning even though his body was chilled with goosebumps.

Then on the last three minutes of the phone call, Althea spoke, "I just saw a worm in the bathroom." She let out a weak laugh before continuing, "I just killed it with salt. I tried to flush it with the showerhead but it was squirming and, oh god, it was a terrible sight. I'm afraid of worms, by the way, in case why you're wondering why I'm telling you this. You're probably thinking right now that this is so crazy and foolish. I'm sorry for calling and worrying you. And Dale, you have a really sexy voice when you just woke up. Goodnight."

Then she hung up, leaving Dale stunned.

He didn't think it was crazy or foolish. He would be proud of her if he wasn't positively sure that she was lying about why she was crying.