Memories

signal

I stood there waiting for Naia's mom, hoping that Cameron wasn't sick or hurt or anyway in trouble. Hopefully he's just asleep, a very deep sleeper.

Naia's mom came up and right away called an ambulance. They put Cameron onto a stretcher. And drove away with Naia's mom to the hospital. Leaving me and Naia home alone.

"What do we do now?"

"I guess we wait."

So that's what we did. We sat down on the couch in the room and tried to distract ourselves by watching TV. It half-worked. We pretended to be interested in the show that was on, but instead thought about Cameron.

"Why are we even watching this?"

"I don't know. It's on right now."

"It's the Soap Box Derby. How is that even a thing?"

"Some people like racing down hills in a weird go-kart."

"Some people, those people are."

"Hey, I think someone's calling you."

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

She pulled out her phone.

"Hey, it's my mom."

"Take it."

"Alright."

She pressed accept, and her mom came onto speakerphone.

"Hi, Naia. And AJ, I'm guessing you guys are still together."

"Yeah. How's Cameron?"

"He's doing alright. His heart was just beating too slow. They're trying to figure out why. And why it caused him to be asleep like that."

"Ok. Can we come down?"

"Yeah, why don't you guys call an Uber or something. We're in the emergency room. Just ask for Cameron. They'll show you the room."

"Alright, we'll do that."

"Oh, and if you can find his parents. They aren't here, and the doctors would like to see them."

"Alright. Love you mom."

"Love you too."

She hung up and looked at me.

"How are we supposed to find his parents?"

"I don't know. Do you know his last name?"

"No. But I bet he left his phone here. We could call his dad from that."

"Great idea. I'll go check."

I ran upstairs and into her room.

I frantically looked through his bag, hoping he had his phone in it.

Quickly I found it. Once I had it in my hands, I ran downstairs to Naia.

"Got it!"

"Yeah!"

"Here, wait, we need to unlock it."

"What numbers would he possibly use?"

"None. It's a word one. That can be anything, literally any word."

"What's important to him?"

"Ummm... I don't know. What do boys like him like?"

"So many things. What do you think?"

"I don't know? Just put random words in."

"Uh. Train? Cameron? Utah? Ed? Password? WhywouldIusethis?"

"No. No. No. No, why? No. No."

"Wait I've got one. Give me the phone."

"Ok?"

She punched in a two letter word. Wow, if it works that's short.

"Got it! Wow, I didn't think it would work."

"What was it?"

"Nevermind that, call his dad."

"Ok."

I went to contacts and called the one labeled as Dad.

"Did you call him?"

"Yeah."

"Put it on speaker phone."

A male voice blasted out of the phone. It was vaguely familiar.

"What do you want?"

"Hi, is this Cameron's dad?"

"Yeah, what are you calling me for?"

"We're calling about Cameron. We need you to go to the hospital to see him."

"Why is my son in the hospital?"

"That's why you need to go. We don't know. He wasn't waking up."

"Alright, I'll go. Don't expect me to be there for at least an hour though."

"Ok, just as long as you get there."

He hung up.

"Alright, get an Uber."

"Already on it."

"Wow, AJ. You're ready."

"Yeah, we need to get there."

The Uber pulled up about five minutes after that and we were on the way to the hospital.