Page 105 - NS 2024

startled me so much that the phone fell out of my hands. Luckily, Sienna caught it. She answered, and of course, it was the janitor on the other side.
“Uh... Ralph, it’s Jason. One of the night shi janitors.”
I was staring at Sienna, expecting her to laugh, but instead, she answered the janitor instantly. “Why’d you wake me up at this hour? It better be something important.” If my eyes were closed, I could have believed that it was any man saying the words. I gave myself a mental reminder to tell Sienna that perhaps she should try voice-acting. She clearly had a natural talent.
“Well, there’s this kid sneaking around the library. He doesn’t go here and I think he’s causing trouble.”
“What’s his name?” Sienna asked.
“What?” e janitor asked.
Sienna sighed. “You didn’t ask the kid his name?”
“Oh-” e janitor paused, and in the background, I heard him ask Owen for his name. “He
says it’s Owen.”
“Oh!” Sienna exclaimed, still in her fake voice. “Owen Ross?”
“Um...” ere was more chatter in the background and then, “Yeah. Owen Ross.” “He’s Bridget Ross’ kid.”
“Bridget Ross? Didn’t she just die?” e janitor asked.
My heart sank hearing him ask. I didn’t think of how my mom’s coworkers would be
aected. A few of them were at the funeral, but what about these more distant ones? What about the ones who saw her face every morning, but never really spoke to her? Didn’t they deserve to grieve too? When people like that leave your life, you don’t so much grieve their absence, but rather the fact that you never took the time to get to know them. You start wondering what could have been, what you missed out on.
“Yes, um, she gave her children special permission to explore the library. She le some artifacts in her oce for them. You should let him go. In fact, Jason, why don’t you leave for the night? I’m sure you’ve done enough work.”
I was shaking my head no at Sienna. She was taking this too far. Her impersonation was beyond impressive, but she needed to remember that she wasn’t actually this guy’s boss. We didn’t want to get anyone in trouble.
“Oh, okay. anks, boss. See you tomorrow?”
“Yup, bye!” Sienna hung up the phone and we both started laughing. We had to force ourselves to stop laughing when we heard the janitor and Owen walk out of the oce. e janitor was apologizing to Owen, not for capturing him inside his oce, but for the loss of our mother. It conrmed my belief: that her presence, furthermore, her death, had impacted even the people who barely knew her. e wide array of guests at the funeral should have shown that to me, but for some reason, I didn’t realize it until that moment.