She hit the TV with her palm of her hand a few times. It always does this after about forty minutes: flicker, static, or even change to a different channel. But she desperately needed to hear what the news station was talking about.
"T-T-Today, downtown at the Tunnel bus station a tragedy happened.."
Finally, it started working again. She squatted in front of the TV. The visual changed to a news reporter at the bus station.
"That's right Barbra, and right behind me is where it all happened. The investigation is still ongoing but police say it's linked to suicide..." Whatever was behind the reporter was covered by yellow tape, police officers and anything else was either not shown or blurred out.
She didn't listen to the rest of what was said fully. Her friend takes that bus every afternoon home, but because of the incident she won't be able to. She takes out her phone from her pocket and gives her a call. No answer. Maybe a text will do better. No answer..yet. Maybe she's busy?
"Momm?" She shouts, tilting her head looking into kitchen.
"What Vicki?" Her mother answers with a sigh. She puts a lid on the food that was just beginning to boil. She turns, placing a hand on her hip looking back at Vicki.
"Did you hear about what happened downtown?" She grunts, getting up from her position in the living room, walking into the kitchen lazily. She pulls the scrunchie out of her hair, running her fingers through it.
"Yeah" She adds a little bit of seasoning.
"What about it?"
"Do you have Sarah's parents number? I can't get a hold of her." It doesn't take many steps for her to reach her mother.
"I'm...pretty sure I do. My phone is on the table." She answers, looking up at Vicki for the first time in this short conversation. She also barely points in the direction of the table behind her. Once Vicki walks away her gaze goes back to the food.
Vicki walks around the small circle table. It was hard to differentiate anything really, from the dirty plates, uncovered food and the old dingy table cloth underneath. Her mom has one of those old small flip phones too. She pushes and stacked some things to finally find the phone.
It took a couple of tries for someone to pick up.
"...Hello?" The voice was barely auditable and soft. Vicki still recognized it though, Sarah's mother.
"Hi, this is Vicki, I just wanna know if Sarah got home okay?"
A terrible wailing was heard on Vicki's end, practically screaming. There was a voice in the background that also sounded familiar, seemingly saying comforting words. Though over the crying it couldn't be heard.
Word count: 465
