I woke to ringing. It took me a moment to orient myself. My heart thudded hard, as happens when one is awakened by a phone, I guess. Wiping my hand across my sleep-heavy eyelids, I sat up and reached for my cell phone, which rested on the bedside chest of drawers.
“Hello,” I rasped. Then I looked to see who had called me. I didn’t get a lot of calls; I never had. Mostly from Donald. And those wouldn’t come any more.
“Dane? It’s Emily.”
My sister. We rarely talked. Of course, this was a rare occasion. I tried to figure out what time it was by looking around the room. Donald had insisted we have no clocks in our bedroom since he retired. The drapes were closed, and only a bit of light streamed in.
“Dane?”
“Yeah, I’m here.” Though completely out of it, obviously. “What time is it?”
“Ten
