34,400 ~ 36,200

The music stopped blaring and the phone vibrated. Sam looked at her iPhone sitting in the console. The caller ID said ‘Sheilagh Caughlin’ and showed a picture of Sam, Malin, and her wild, red-headed agent on the street in New York City. Sam winced and looked at Kate who showed no outward signs of sympathy. She hesitated a moment then picked up the phone and hit the green ‘answer’ button.

“Yes, Ma’am”.

“Jesus Christ, Samantha!”

Sheilagh was a devout atheist who took great pleasure in taking the lord’s name in vain. She knew it didn’t bother Sam but assumed the tone would more than get her attention. Before Sam could respond, Sheilagh continued.

“Where in the Hell are you? And why in the Hell are you not returning Emily’s calls? You know what happens when you blow her off? I get called. I do. And then I have to make excuses and tell assorted half-truths to cover your ass. I’m not happy, Samantha. Not happy at all.”

Sam waited for her to take a breath, then jumped in.

“Aw, fuck. I know. I’ve been busy.”

“Fuck busy, Sam. Fuck it. Just fuck it. I’m busy, too. I don’t have time for this bullshit. Are you back in Austin yet?”

“Yeah, about that… I’m in BFE Kentucky.”

“Kentucky?!? What in the fuck are you doing in Kentucky? I’m not sure I want to know. Do I want to know? Jesus, Samantha. I thought you were going to Minnesota. And besides the point, you’re supposed to be almost home by now. You’ve got a deadline and you’re in God damn Kentucky? That’s like seventeen states away from Texas. Please tell me you’ve got this under control and that you’re on your way home.”

“I’ve got this under control.”

“The fuck you do! Don’t lie to me.”

“Ok, look. I got a little side-tracked. You know how I was going to give my mom her ‘Bucket List Wish’ thing? Well, she didn’t want trip to Rome or Paris. She wanted me to find some old lady that she used to be friends with growing up. It hasn’t been easy. Old ladies don’t have Twitter accounts and you can’t just Google them. It’s been a fucking bitch of a wild goose chase, but I’m almost there.”

Sam quickly explained and Sheilagh sighed.

“Fuck, Sam. I thought you hated your mom.”

“I do. Well, hate is strong word. But I promised her I’d do this and then it got a little crazy.”

“You could have at least called Emily back. Five fucking minutes of your time would have saved a half hour of mine.”

“I’m sorry. Really, I am. I should have called her back.”

Apologies weren’t Sam’s strong suit and Sheilagh knew it.

Sam continued, “It just kept spiraling. Just this morning I thought the old lady I was looking for was dead, then it turned out she’s still alive. It keeps going and going. Right when I think I’m at a dead end and can pack it in, I get a new lead.”

“Well, what’s your ETA at this point? We’ve committed to being done on Monday. It’s Wednesday now and you’re in Kentucky. Un-fucking believable.”

“I honestly don’t know. I thought this’d be wrapped up by now. Right now, I’m driving back to Minnesota where the old lady’s daughter lives.”

“So, you’re in fucking Kentucky when you could have just stayed in fucking Minnesota?”

“Fuck me, right?”

“Look, Samantha. You need to figure this thing out and get with Emily. If you’re not going to make the deadline, she needs to know. Now.”

“I know. I know. My plan is to meet with the daughter, find out where the mother is, and let my mom know. That can’t take more than a day. Feasibly, I could be done by tomorrow night. Hit the road early Friday morning and have the weekend to kill it before Monday.”

“Sweet baby, Jesus, I hope you’re right. But if not, you better get your ass on the phone with Emily the moment, THE ACTUAL MOMENT, that this thing goes even farther South than it has.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“The moment, Sam. Not five minutes later. We clear?”

“Crystal”.

“On another subject, how’s Malin?” Sam could hear Sheilagh laughing out loud.

“Fuck you, Sheilagh. And fuck her. Later.”

Sam hung up and looked over at Kate.

“Well, wasn’t that the best time ever?”

Sam had just crossed the Indiana border when her phone rang again. She looked at the caller ID. Allison. Why wasn’t her mother calling? What did her sister always have to get involved in situations she didn’t need to be involved in? And why hadn’t Jeff warned her?

“Hello?” It was always better to start out low-key with Allison. She’d light it up all by herself.

“Samantha Jane Stephens, I hope you have a very good explanation for this.”

“For what?”

“For what? For running off on the vacation you were supposed to be spending with your family.”

Fuck my family, thought Sam.

“Running off? I didn’t ‘run off’. I’m looking for mom’s old friend, Ruthie Goldman. Did she tell you that part? Did she tell you what she wished for when I said I’d give her anything she wanted?”

“Samantha, you’ve been gone days. Christopher said you were there on Monday and today’s Wednesday. How long does it take? Even Malin says she hasn’t heard from you.”

“Malin? You talked to Malin? Dammit, Ally.”

“Please don’t curse at me, Samantha. You know how Mom worries. She thought you got mad and ran off. You’ve done it before.”

True enough, Sam had. But that time she left pissed off after a big blow-up. This time, she left on good terms and her mother knew where she was going, more or less.

“Fuck me. For real? I’m doing this for her, for her, not for me. If I had my way, I’d have written a check, hung out for a day or two, and been back in Austin by now. Mom’s the one who set me off on this. And I’m going to see it through.”

“Well, you could have called.”

“Alright. Yes, I could have called. But I didn’t. I never seemed to know exactly where I was or if I was even going to be able to find her. And Ally, I think I may have found her.”

“That’s nice, Sam. You might want to give Mom a call but I’ll let her know you’re alive and not angry with your family again.”

Before Sam could say anything more, Allison clicked off and the call ended.

“Typical”, Sam muttered as she set the phone back in the console. The next time it rang, she was going to pretend her music was too loud to hear it.

~

 

Sam pulled into a truck stop at 4:25pm. It was now or never. Her plan was to drive until she got tired, pull over for the night, and finish whatever was left of the thirteen hour drive in the morning. The ultimate goal was to meet with Ruth’s daughter the next day and find out where Ruth was. She had spent the past three hours, when not getting bitched at on the phone, debating her next move. She had the daughter’s contact information. On the front of the business card Sally Grace had given her was Jordana Miller’s office information. On the back of the card, someone had scrawled what was probably her cell phone number.

 

As she drove she played ‘Eenie-Meanie-Minie-Moe’ with the card. Should she call Jordana’s office or her cell? It wasn’t business, but it seemed somewhat forward to call her on her private number. Sure, she’d gotten the number from a family member and that might make it ok, but Sam was worried about putting her off. What if she got angry that Sally Grace had given out her number? What if she refused to talk to her? What if she didn’t answer unknown numbers? What if she got this close and then hit a dead end?

 

Finally, Sam decided to call her office number, but that meant she’d have to call before EOB. What time was the end of the business day for university professors? Sam didn’t know for sure. Maybe Dr. Miller taught a night class or not at all on Wednesdays. Maybe she took an afternoon yoga class and liked to skip out early on Wednesdays. There was really no telling and the more Sam thought about it, the more nervous she got. She set an artificial deadline of 4:30pm. If for some reason, Jordana Miller left at 5:00pm like the majority of the working world, Sam wanted to catch her with plenty of time and not make her late leaving for the day.

Sam leaned on the Xterra’s front bumper. A Monster Rehab sat precariously on the hood. Kate laid at her feet looking up at her. Sam pulled the business card out of her back pocket and hit the green ‘Phone’ icon on her iPhone. She took a deep breath and exhaled as she pulled up the keypad. Sam carefully typed the phone number into the phone and checked it against the number printed on the card.

The clock said 16:28. Sam took a swig of the Monster, set it down, and tried to steady herself against the SUV. She could feel her heart beating in her chest. She hadn’t been this nervous in a very long time.

Sam clicked the green ‘Call’ icon and said, “Alright, Kate. Bombs away.”

After a prolonged pause, the phone rang on the other end. Sam pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at the time. 16:30 on the dot.

“Fuck you, Sheilagh. I can, too, make a deadline.”

The phone rang three, four, five times. Finally, voice mail picked up.

“You have reached Dr. Jordana Miller, Assistant Professor of Psychology at St. Olivers University. Please leave a detailed message including the date, time, and purpose of your call and your contact number. I will call you back as soon as possible. Thank you and have a nice day.”

Sam stopped. She couldn’t breathe. What was she supposed to say? Apparently, she hadn’t thought that far ahead. She heard a high pitched beep.

Fuck.

“Hi, my name is Sam. Your cousin, Sally Grace, gave me this number. I’m hoping you can help me. I’m looking for an old friend of my mother’s, Ruth Goldman. I believe she is your mother. If you can be of any assistance, please call me at 512-864-0470. Thank you. Again, my name is Sam.”

Sam ended the call and finished off the Monster with one big guzzle.

“Well, I sounded like a dumb ass. Maybe I should have let you talk. Eh, let’s get going. I want to get to at least Cedar Rapids before we stop for the night.”