Call Waiting

Every time Londyn is placed on hold, the voices begin.

Doctors call it auditory processing trauma. Her family calls it another excuse to avoid the world. But the voices call themselves the waiting-people suspended between life and death, speaking from hospital rooms, accident scenes, bridges, motel bathrooms, and beneath dark water.

Londyn has learned never to listen for long.

Then her estranged mother enters hospice. Forced to navigate medical phone trees, insurance departments, and endless recorded messages, Londyn begins hearing a voice she cannot dismiss: a frightened girl who sounds exactly like her younger self. The girl insists that their mother cannot be allowed to die. At least not before Londyn reveals what happened years ago and why their family has spent a lifetime pretending it didn't.

As the boundary between memory and the waiting space begins to collapse, Londyn must confront the final conversation she has avoided for decades.

Because some people remain on the line until the truth is spoken.

And some goodbyes are waiting to become confessions.