Moving Objects

Chapter 5

I listened to the phone ring as I bit my nail, bouncing my knee slightly. I had to practically bribe the dorm matron to let me use the floor, and to use it without supervision, but succeeded. The next step was going to be asking Lissa to compel them. Yes, it was bad, but I really needed to do this. I stretched my neck and winced at the pull of the tape over the next marks littering my neck.

“Hello?”

I froze the moment the voice picked up on the other line, surprised to hear it in English.

“Is this Ibrahim?” I asked. The person on the other end was silent for a nano second before responding.

“Who is this?”

“Um, it’s Rose. Rosemarie Hathaway,” I said, rubbing my feet together as I leaned back in the chair. I felt awkward and excited at the same time. The line was silent for a few minutes, almost like dead air. I looked down at the phone to make sure the call hadn’t dropped when there was a muffled sound.

“Rosemarie?”

“Yes?” I answered immediately, sitting up like they could see me.

“Mr. Mazur is busy at the moment, can he return your call?” the woman asked. Her voice was dispassionate and firm. I frowned slightly.

“Um, I don’t really have a call back number. Would there be a better time to call?”

“Mr. Mazur is a busy man. He doesn’t have time to be waiting around for calls,” she said. I rolled my eyes and slumped back into my chair again, tucking my legs up.

“I’ll just call back,” I said before hanging up and bringing my hands to my eyes, pressing the heels in. I needed more sleep.

____________________

“I’m sorry-”

“No. This is the fifth time I’ve called in two weeks. I will not be told that he is unavailable again. Just let me talk to him!” I snapped into the phone, flopping back onto the bed in the cabin. Dimitri let out a choked laugh from where he was by the fireplace, and I glared at his back.

“Mr. Mazur is in a meeting at the moment,” the woman said again. I wanted to scream.

“Then I will wait,” I said, rubbing my hand over my face. I would wait, and I would pay Dimitri back for the minutes. Dimitri came and sat down beside me on the bed and ran his hand over my hair.

“I’m on hold,” I said quietly and sat up to lean against him. I really had rubbed off on Dimitri, sneaking me out past curfew to the cabin in order to call my dad. Despite being exhausted, I really needed to get through to him.

“Ms. Hathaway?” a male voice came across the phone.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry for the delay. I’m going to put you through to Abe,” he said before the line went quiet. I sat up straight and took a deep breath, biting my lip to suppress the smirk that was coming across.

“Abe speaking.”

The smirk I was trying to suppress broke through into a full blown smile. “Abe? It’s Rose. Rose Hathaway,” I said, reaching down to grip Dimitri’s hand tightly.

“My, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon! How are you?” Abe asked and I could hear the enthusiasm in his voice. It was heavily accented and deep, but a part of me recognized it immediately.

“I’ve been calling for two weeks but this is the first time I’ve gotten through to you. And I’m good, really happy to get to talk to you. I got the letter you wrote me,” I said excitedly, the words practically tumbling out of my mouth.