Participants:
| Scene Title | A Southern Call |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A call from one friend checking in with another starts off pleasant, then devolves into darker topics. |
| Date | July 7, 2010 |
Telephone connection
Ring Ring
That's the sound of a phone, someone wanting to make a connection to the Pain Augmentor. Same time zone, same everything, late late at night, possibly morning. Either way, it's not a normal time of the day to be getting a call and the caller ID isn't hard to miss who it is.
A. Beauchamp.
The sound of the phone has Melissa sighing, right up until she picks up the phone and sees 'Abby' on the readout. She grins and connects the call. "Abby! How's my favorite cotton candy haired girl doin' down there in the south? It was the south, right?"
"Down in the south, back home. Elias dropped me off, told me to call when I wanted to come back" She sounds rundown and tired. "Dah's okay. Momma's ripping him a new one, doctor's ripping him a new one. The hospital bills after the insurance will be horrified, but.. he's alive, the lord be blessed and thanked for sparing him"
A sound that Melissa is well familiar with, Cicaidas and other night time song makers clearly in the background. "How are you Mel?"
The question has Melissa laughing. "Busy. Very. Fucking. Busy. Got a full house. Reminds me of the Den, but more so. Back to being blonde though, so that makes me feel better. When you coming back?" she asks, and that question has a hint of something in it. Hope? Desperation? Who knows. "Glad your dad's doing okay though. I know you were worried."
"Maybe a few days, I dunno. They're gonna run a billion more tests on my Dah. wasn't a big heart attack, they did his surgery and stuff, should turn him loose in a few days. Say in a few weeks, they'll let him go back to work. I'll let you know when I do. I think I'll sleep for days. My momma's all in a tizzy. Busy huh?
"Yeah. Got two more people staying with me, so I'm up to four, plus the two dogs," Melissa says with a sigh. "Like I said, worse than the Den. Add in the club and the center, and me being a disaster magnet, I'm about run ragged." There's a soft laugh. "Yet somehow, I love it. Mostly. Just wish you were here for some quality girl talk."
"Worse than me" Abigail muses. 'Sitting on the porch right now, I think you'd like it. They rebuilt it nearly the same only bigger. Momma's got her sunroom, and they rebuilt my room in the same place, only they put a bigger bed back in. It burnt down" In case Melissa didn't know. "Kozlow burned it down. A Russian. We can girl talk for sure when I get back home. Do you know if Rhett's okay? And scarlett, or Pila?"
When Abby mentions Kozlow, there's a long moment of silence from Melissa. "Aleksandr Kozlow? Abby…I saw him last night, and this morning…The paper says he killed himself last night," she says quietly. "And I don't know about the pets, but I'll go by and check on 'em if someone's there to let me in."
There is stunned silence from the other side of the line, the woods behind the newly rebuilt white rambling farm house getting a long look from Abigail.
"He wouldn't commit suicide" So sure of it.
She shakes her head vehemently, even though Melissa can't see it. "Not Kazmir's Skoll. It wouldn't be him"
"Skoll? I don't know that word. But that's what the paper said, Abby. Or, well, they said self-inflicted gunshot, but I guess the self-inflicted part could've been faked," Melissa says. "I really don't know. I'm just telling you what I saw."
Would he do it?
Possibly. But there was family, possibly a love in Berlin, or it was somewhere out there. Her mind is tired, and she's trying to remember what he was like the last time that she had run across him that wasn't in a smokey bar.
"If he has… he has, I'll pray for his soul regardless" Like so many others. "I can't talk long, I gotta get some sleep. I'll call the super, tell them to let you in, just make sure they're okay, in case Peter hasn't… returned to the apartment"