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 r...