“Hello.”
The other end of the phone line was silent.
“Hello…? HELLO?”
A clunk and a bang on the other end of the line assured him that there was, indeed someone there. A woman’s voice come through the line. “Um… hello? May I speak to a…uh… Tim?”
“This is Tim. Who is this?”
“Hello. My name is Lily Ada… Michaels. Lily Michaels.”
“Hi. Can I help you?”
“I think maybe you can. Do you have a friend, about six foot two inches, maybe two hundred pounds? Short dark hair?”
“Buck? You’ve found Buck?”
“Oh, thank god. Buck is his name? God, I’m so glad to hear that you know him. That I have a right number.”
“Where are you? Where’s Buck now? Can I talk to him?”
“I’m sorry. He’s… well, he doesn’t seem to be able to talk very well right now.”
“Wait, is he ok? What’s wrong with him? Is he sick?”
“He might be sick. Look, I’m really really not sure what’s wrong with him, but something is affecting him in a really weird way. I don’t know what’s happening.”
“Where is he? Where are you calling from?”
“We’re in Lincoln. Nebraska.”
“Lincoln, Nebraska? Good lord. What the hell is he doing in Lincoln, Nebraska?”
“I take it you’re not nearby, then?”
“Huh? No, no, I’m in Illinois. About sixty miles west of Chicago. Listen, how’d you get my number and find me?”
“The big guy… Buck?… he dialed the number. Seemed like a reflex, I think. That’s how we got in touch with you at all. He just started dialing.”
“Well, ok. Uh… so, how are we going to get Buck back here where he belongs? Can you drive him?”
“All the way to Illinois? Oh, wow. I can bring him like halfway, I think. But I don’t know about drying all the way to Chicago. It’s pretty far from here.”
“That’s no problem. I don’t know how soon I’ll be able to drive all the way to Lincoln, though.”
“I can bring him halfway. Maybe we can meet somewhere in Iowa, like maybe Des Moines?”
“Yeah, I can do Des Moines. That’ll be a long trip for both of us, but we can do that. I’ll skip class or something. OK. So, how soon can you meet me in Iowa?”
“Well, I can get there by tomorrow morning, if you want to do this as quickly as possible. I’ll want to take a nap or something, rest up, and then I can start driving.”
“OK. Let me give you my cell phone number, and we’ll figure out the details…”