The Call From An Unknown Number

Rowan Mercer had been halfway through a meeting in his Nashville office when his phone lit up with a number he did not recognize, and because he almost let it ring out, assuming it was one more vendor trying to reach him before lunch, he would remember for the rest of his life the strange, ordinary hesitation that came before the moment everything changed.

He answered with a distracted, “Hello?”

For one second there was only static, the faint rustle of movement, and then a little boy’s voice, tight with fear and exhaustion, came through the speaker.

“Dad?”

Rowan was already on his feet before he fully understood what he was hearing. “Micah? Why are you calling me from another phone? What happened?”