Chapter six of six
Last
Call
2:14 AM · Booth four
Forty-eight hours after the voicemail. Thursday afternoon your father said one word. The nurse wrote it on the whiteboard because she thought it was the name of somebody to call. It was. Harlan.
You are in booth four. Harlan is across from you, where he has sat every night for eleven years, and tonight he moved over. His keys are on the table. The pie is on the table. The office door is open, because you opened it. Voss's stool is empty. Teo is on the flat-top. Mara came back at midnight and hasn't looked at you yet, which is how you know she's been looking at you all night.
Ten minutes. No voices this time. The last chapter is yours.
People so far
Dell — Your father; said one word: Harlan.
Harlan — Booth four; told you what he saw last night.
Mara — Diner server; came back at midnight.
Voss — Deputy; opened the office door at 2:11.
Notes
Harlan brings you up to date. Brice Tolliver is the lender your father owes eleven thousand dollars. B.T. on the payment. The man in the car works for him. Your father's deposit bag is in Harlan's trunk.
What I know
Friday · 2:14 AM
It's 2:14. The clock over the register says so, and for the first time all week, so does your phone.
At 2:11 a car came into the lot with its lights off and parked at the dark end. Harlan saw it before you did. He didn't say anything. He put his hand flat on the table next to the keys, and left it there.
You have three minutes and a phone that has everything in it.
The bag
Your phone is full
Everyone recorded everyone. It's all in your hand.
Your father went out to that car with nothing in his hands so a man would have to say what he wanted out loud. He said it. Harlan heard it. You have it.
The truth about the money is the same file as the truth about the time.
Friday, 7 AM · He can hold a phone
The nurse said he'll be able to hold a phone by morning. He has one word, and then he'll have more. The first thing he asks, when he can ask, will be about the bag, because he's your father.
2:16 AM
The clock over the register says 2:16 now. So does your phone.
Harlan slides the pie across.
Teo comes out of the kitchen at 2:20, the way he never does, and puts a Denver omelet in front of you that nobody ordered, and goes back. It's the most he's said all week.
You pick up the fork.
You finish the pie. He makes it her way.
2:21 · Every clock in the place agrees
Stories that unfold at the listener's pace.
A Pocket Dread production.
Voices: Mara, Sarah · Teo, Luis · Dobbs, Bill · Harlan, Roger.
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Off Leash
A new story. You, your old dog, the walk you've taken every morning for nine years. Today she stops. Seven walks, six minutes each.
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