Page 72 of Sloane

Ashley

I wasn’t taking another day off until Sloane was home, and we were headed to Mexico, so I was back at the VA the day after Christmas.

On December twenty-seventh, I was driving home from work and switched my radio to the FM stations since I couldn’t find anything good on satellite radio.

A man I recognized from San Diego Action News was talking on the station that came on, and I moved to change the channel then stopped suddenly when I heard: Middle East, stationed at Camp Pendleton, and bomb.

I felt the blood rush from my head, and it felt like I was in a dream. I remember pulling over and as my hands shook, I scrolled through my list of contacts until I found Ryan’s name.

The call went straight to voicemail.

No!

I hung up and dialed again, with the same result.

A feeling of helplessness overtook me, but I refused to sit by and do nothing.

Do I have Maddie’s number? Maybe she’s with Ryan.

If not, who do I know at Camp Pendleton?

I swiped through my contact list again until I reached the letter M. There was the entry I was looking for: Maddie Monroe. I hit the telephone icon, and a wave of nausea hit me just as her phone started to ring.

I wasn’t sure which I was more anxious about—her not answering or me puking in my car.

“Hello?”

Thank God she answered.

“Maddie? It’s Ashley.”

She knew immediately why I was calling because she replied with, “Oh, Ash. We saw the news, too.”

“I just caught a little bit on the radio. Do you know what’s going on?”

“The news didn’t say much, just that two military vehicles were hit by a roadside bomb and personnel from Camp Pendleton were involved.”

“Have you heard from Sloane?”

“No, not yet. But you know what?” Her voice got stronger. “That’s a good thing. No news is good news.”

I needed to believe that with every fiber of my being.

“Let’s hope so. I’ve been trying to reach Ryan, since Sloane said he’s his emergency contact…”

“Yeah, Ryan’s not in a good way right now. Grace was in a car accident last week, so between that and him being crucified on Page Six, he’s a wreck. He’s hiding out at Paradise Point Resort this weekend. I’m not even sure he has his phone with him.”

I obviously hadn’t been following the gossip pages because I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Oh no! Is there anything I can do? I should visit Grace.”

“That’s really thoughtful of you, but she won’t know who you are. Grace doesn’t remember anything after August. She has no recall of Thanksgiving, including getting snowed in with Ryan up at the cabin, much less agreeing to even date him. Grace still thinks Sloane is getting ready to ship out the first time.”

“I’m so sorry.” I loved hearing that Grace and Ryan had finally gotten together and could only imagine how devastated he had to be that she didn’t remember any of it. However, I had my own crisis to deal with. I didn’t want to be selfish, but I had to know. “So, if Ryan isn’t able to be reached, how will we know if something happened?”

“Craig is Sloane’s second emergency contact, so, the Marines will contact him if they can’t reach Ryan. We don’t usually bring that point up because Ryan likes the idea of being special.”

That made me laugh, and I could almost picture Maddie’s sly smile.

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