Page 15 of Silent Echo

I shoot him a dirty look. I’m reporting him to the bus company when we get back. I pull out my parent contact list and call Charlotte’s phone first, which goes right to voicemail.Seriously? You send your sick kid on a field trip then ignore the teacher’s call? Talk about shitty priorities. Next, I try her husband’s office. It goes to voicemail too. I call his cell, and after four rings it’s answered. By a woman.

“May I speak with Mr. Fleming?”

“Sorry, he’s not available at the moment. Can he call you back?”

I can hear a shower running in the background. What a great husband and father. Instead of working, he’s out screwing around. Both Angela and the driver are looking at me expectantly. I hate for the other children to miss the trip, but poor Sebastion needs to get home. That’s when I make a split-second decision. I turn away and end the call then pretend to speak with Sebastion’s father. “Hello, Mr. Fleming, this is Penelope Watson from Sebastion’s school. Everything’s okay, but he’s not feeling well. Would it be okay for me to wait here with him until you can come pick us up and let the bus go on ahead?” I turn back around, nod at Angela and the driver, and point to the bus.

“Go on without us. Sebastion’s father is going to come and pick us up,” I tell them.

They get on the bus and drive off. What I’ve done is against protocol, but under the circumstances, I’m sure everyone will understand. If Charlotte Fleming tries to give me a hard time about it, I’ll report her to DCF for neglect. I order an Uber on my phone, and ten minutes later, a car pulls up.

We’re halfway back to school when the news alert comes through on the driver’s radio. There’s two-way traffic on the bridge because they’ve closed one side. A truck collided with a school bus, and they both careened off the bridge. It feels like all the air leaves my lungs. The children. Oh my God, the children! Then it hits me, what we’ve just escaped. It’s a miracle! It takesme only a moment to decide. I lean forward and speak to the driver.

“Change of plans.” I give him my home address.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When the driver approaches my apartment building, Sebastion looks at me with confusion.

“You said we were going back to school.”

I sneak a look at the driver, worried he’ll get suspicious. I turn to Sebastion. “We are honey. I just need to get something from my apartment.” We get out of the car, and I take his hand in mine. “How’s your tummy?”

He shrugs. “Okay.”

“Are you hungry? I have cookies.”

He nods.

Once we get inside, I have to think fast. I sit him down in the kitchen with some Oreo cookies and milk. “I’ll be back in a minute, sweetie.” I go to the bedroom and turn on the news. I watch in horror as the anchor relays the details of the crash. Everyone is believed dead. There is no one left alive who can tell anyone that Sebastion and I never got back on the bus. Everyone will think we’re both dead. It’s a miracle! If Charlotte hadn’t sent him to school sick, I would have been on that bus. My life would be over. And if I hadn’t taken the initiative to call that Uber instead of putting him on the bus, we’d both be dead. This is the universe giving us both a second chance and sending me a message—Sebastion and I were meant to be together.

Charlotte and her husband will feel devastated when they get the news, of course. But it’s only because ofmyconcern for Sebastion that he’s been spared. It was Charlotte’s selfishness and ambition that put him on that bus to begin with. What kindof mother sends her sick child to school just so that she can go to work? If she needed the money, that would be one thing. But no one at the Windsor School needs the money. If you can afford to pay nearly fifty thousand dollars for a pre-K program, you are certainly not living paycheck to paycheck. Charlotte Fleming swept in late more often than not, wearing designer clothes, her hair and makeup perfect, driving her Range Rover, and living in the lap of luxury in one of most sought-after neighborhoods in Annapolis.

Poor Sebastion was simply an accessory to her. No more important than her designer purse. And I could swear there were times I smelled alcohol on her breath. What other jeopardy might she put him in if I send him back to her? No, he’s safer with me. I’ll devote myself to him. And besides, I’m betting that her marriage isn’t long for this world with that cheating shit she’s married to. I think back to all the nights I cried myself to sleep listening to my parents fight. How scared I was that my father’s explosive temper would vent itself on me. Sebastion deserves better.

I pull a suitcase from the closet and throw in some essentials, including the five hundred dollars in emergency cash I keep on hand. I look around the room, debating what to leave and what to take. There can be no indication that I’ve been here, of course. It has to look like I perished in the crash. I open my jewelry box and grab the gold necklace Nora gave me when I graduated from high school. There’s a photo of us on the wall, but I have to leave it, otherwise its absence will be noticed. I have to hurry. If any of my neighbors see me, it’s all over.Think, think, I tell myself. We need to get out of the state, far from Maryland, where no one will remember that our names are listed as casualties from the accident. It’s not as though I can manufacture a new identity right away, so we need to go somewhere no one knows us until I figure out what to do. That’s when I decide on Florida.I need time to come up with a believable explanation as to why I suddenly have a four-year-old boy living with me. And I need time to make Sebastion forget where he came from. Orlando is perfect. A few hours from Nora’s house in Stuart. Plus, Disney. Sebastion will love that. His favorite character is Buzz Lightyear. We’ll have so much fun exploring the park together.

When I come out of the bedroom, he’s standing by the door. “I want my mommy. Can you take me home?”

“Oh, sweetie. Your mommy just called and asked me to look out for you a little longer. She has to work.”

His face falls. “She always has to work.”

I walk over to him and crouch down so we’re eye to eye. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I know it’s hard. But in the meantime, we can go on a little adventure until you can go home. Have you heard of Disneyworld?”

“Yeah. My mommy and daddy said they would take me there for my next birthday.”

“How would you like to go now?”

His face lights up. “Really?”

“Really. Your parents will meet us there. But it’s a long ride, so we’d better get going.”

“Okay.”

I load him in the car, and we take off. When I first bought my used car, I was annoyed that it had built-in booster seats. Now I see it as another sign that this was meant to be. We’ll be in Orlando by early afternoon tomorrow if I drive straight through. I’ll rent a room for a few days, buy him some clothes and toiletries, and then figure out our next move. It’s not long before he falls asleep, and as I drive us farther from Maryland, a picture begins to form in my mind. I’ll find us a cute little house to rent, one with a pool. We’ll join a local homeschool group so that Sebastion will have friends, but no documentation will beneeded. I’ll miss teaching at the Windsor School, but fate has a higher calling for me.

Thanks to my background in early childhood education, I know that in a few years, his memories formed up to now will be forgotten. As long as I’m patient and reinforce the new narrative, he will come to believe it. In the short term it’s going to be challenging, but I just have to keep reminding myself that he’ll be better off in the long run. If only someone had rescued me, I would have been spared a lifetime of pain. While I may not have hard proof that Sebastion’s parents are actually abusive, I have enough evidence that they are neglectful. And that’s just as bad. I’ll give him all the love and support I never got growing up. And when the time is right, he and I will move closer to my sister, where he’ll have three cousins. Everything is going to turn out just fine.

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