The Phone Call

Part Two

"Hi Leanna, is Abigail near? Aury fell and hurt her knee and her hand." Aury started to squirm, wanting to be put down so, that's exactly what I did. As soon as her feet touched the ground her face brightened up, like all the pain disappeared.

"Hi Ms. Reagan. Abby is in the kitchen, come in and I will let Abby know your here."

"Mommy?" Aury tugged on my jacket, her blue eyes making my brown eyes melt. Pointing inside the house, where Leanna was waving her to come in.

"No, honey not yet. We need to get you all fixed up, when we get everything bandaged then you can go play while I talk to Abby for a little while." She nodded her head before she walked into the house and started talking to Leanna.

I just stood there, smiling. Smiling at what a big girl, my baby Aury has grown into, it was just 5 years ago, we were alone and homeless. We had no one, we were left for dead. Aury's father left when she was one, when he left he took everything. The house, the car, the money - all of it. It was just me and her, I would leave her at my grandmas house while I went to work. Everything was starting to get better, then my grandma died. But, she left us everything - the house, her estate, all of her money. We moved into the house, 5 months after she died. I met Alice shortly after moving in, she lived next door to us. But, a house fire 'caused them to move, though it was only 7 blocks down. Riley, her oldest at 10 and Leanna, the youngest at 6 quickly befriended Aury. Our life has changed for the better, we have a place to call home now, we have people who we can say we love, and they love us just as much.

I quickly started to walk into the house shutting the door behind me when I heard Abby call.

"Reagan?"

"Yeah, are you still in the kitchen?" I asked walking towards the kitchen.

"Yes, I'm making some coffee do you want some?"

"No, I'm trying to get away from the caffeine. Do you have any tea? If not it's fine." I say as I walk into the kitchen and sit in the bar stool across from Abby.

"Umm, I think I do, " She walked to an upper cabinet to the left of the sink.

"Yup, here they are. I have peppermint, and, " She drew out the and while she searched for another tea. "I have also have green. Your choice." She sat them both down on the kitchen island while, grabbing a mug out of the cabinet and a pitcher of hot water.

"Peppermint, please." Abby poured the water into the mug, put in the tea and handed it to me.

***

"I'm gonna go get the girls. Aury really wanted her pancakes this morning. So, I must give my baby what she wants!," I started to walk out of the kitchen before turning back. "Did Alice call and tell you that I was taking Leanna and Riley to my house to have breakfast and play with Aury, until she got home from work and can pick them up?"

I didn't want to take the girls and have Abby think I was kidnapping them or something.

"Yeah, they already have a day bag packed. They wanted to each take their 2 favorite toys, and since it's Christmas time. The got both you and Aury a present. They are really excited about what they got you!" The thoughts of what they could of gotten Aury sprinkled across my mind.

"Awe, that warms my heart. They so did not have to do that, and I feel so bad because we didn't get them anything!" Abby looked like she was going to say something but, quickly shook her head and laughed. I turned back around and walk towards the back of the house where the girls rooms are located.

The hallway walls were littered with pictures of Riley, Leanna, and Alice. In no pictures was the girls father, Alice told me he died over seas in the war when Alice was 3 months pregnant with Leanna. Riley was only 4 and a half, and she barley remembers her father from what Alice has told me.

Some if the pictures were silly, such as Leanna and Riley in a photo booth with clown wigs and huge sunglasses. Another one of Alice, and Riley when Leanna was about 3 months, and them all three together in a butterfly garden, all wearing white dresses and black necklaces.

Times like these makes me wish that when Aury was litter that we would of taken family photos. Times when grams and gramps were still living. The only picture I have of us is when Aury was born, right when she popped out.

As my thoughts wondered through all the times, and my eyes grazed each and every picture. I was pulled out of my trance when I heard a scream, coming from the back of the house. The mother in me kicked in, whether if we are in a park or at a neighbors house if I hear a scream it usually means something bad happened.

I raced towards the back of the house, to see Riley sitting on the bed laughing and Leanna crying. Bury was no where to be seen.

"G-girls, what happened?" My voice was shaky, already preparing for the worse. Riley's eyes darted towards me, then down in one quick motion. Leanna stopped crying, and ran to the bed and crawled behind Riley to hide.

"Ms. Reagan, please don't be mad at me, at us! We tried to stop her!" Riley said as she started to tear up. The worst was already in my mind, but this made it even worse. Everything that could of went wrong kept running through my head.

"Riley, Leanna," My voice was stern with fright and concern. "What happened to and or with Aury?"

"S-she, she ran out, we were playing hide-and-go-seek. Leanna and Aury were hiding and I was seeking, I found Leanna right away. She was in her normal spot, b-but we couldn't find Aury. We both searched the entire house. We didn't come a tell you because we didn't want you to be mad at us. We were only playing and now, Aury is gone!" Riley's tears started to flow at a steady pace now.

A sense of calmness came over me, taking over, and everything went black. My body felt cold, and weak. My knees started to give, and wiggle.