Happy Accidents

The phone rang. Melinda glanced at the caller ID as she entered the kitchen. Robert Banks, it read.

Hmmm, I don’t know any Robert Banks. Wonder who this is? She thought to herself.

Melinda found herself again relishing the new gadget she’d just bought for the house the week before. How did they ever manage before such an invention? Actually being able to know who’s calling before you pick up. Man. What a time to be alive.

“Hello?” She greeted as warmly as she could but admittedly felt exasperated. 30 minutes. That’s how much time she had left until she had to head back to work from her short lunch break.

“Hi,” returned the light male voice on the other side. “Can I please speak to Janie?”

“Oh, Janie isn’t home right now,” Melinda replied. “May I ask who’s calling?” Although she already knew. Well knew, but didn’t know.

“Bobby,” he replied.

Melinda was having a bit of trouble hearing him, secretly cussing Janie for leaving the loud TV on before she left that morning to spend the weekend with her cousins. The meteorologist’s voice boomed through the house as he relayed the forecast for the coming week. Not only the volume but also the bass in his voice far outweighed that of the boy, who seemed to speak especially softly.

“Don’t let that current ball of rays fool you!” the newscaster seemed to all but shout with the usual fake obnoxious pep of people on the news. “An abundance of clouds are not far behind and what you can expect to really see these next few days…”

How many times have I told that girl to turn that thing off when she leaves! Melinda also shouted in her mind. Turn the TV off, turn the TV off… I don’t know why that’s so hard!!

Her eyes briefly searched the living room for the remote but came up short. And didn’t want to tear herself from the ham and cheese sandwich she had eagerly begun gathering the ingredients for — let alone, the call — so instead, she pressed the phone more closely to her ear and asked again.

“Who?”

“Bobby,” he repeated a bit more forcefully.

Hmm Bobby? She pondered, thinking back on the caller ID.

Ahh.. Robert. Bobby — a junior, got it. But she still wondered who this kid was, having never heard either name before.

“Oh, okay. Hmm, Bobby?” Melinda repeated out loud. “I don’t think Janie’s mentioned that name before. How do you kn—“

“Well, we’re good friends,” he jumped in. “We’ve known each other for a while now. She’s pretty great.”

“Yes, yes, she is,” Melinda agreed and trailed off into an abrupt awkward pause. “Well, I can let her know you called when she gets back.” She tried not to be rude, but hearing the rumble of her stomach begin to rival the TV, she was anxious to end the call and hurry to put something in it. She already knew it was going to be hard enough as it was to leave home to go back to work…on a Saturday — because, who wants to work on a Saturday? — let alone the fact that she hadn’t even eaten yet. And that was the only thing that would make coming home in the middle of a Saturday workday halfway worth it — to save a few bucks instead of eating out as she normally would.

And also having the house to herself for a change, even if for only a few minutes. No Janie. No little Jimmy, who was spending the weekend with their dad.

Otherwise, why bother the torture? That’s why she usually didn’t.

“Do you know when she’ll be able to call me back?” Bobby asked with an edge of impatience.

“I don’t,” Melinda replied.

“Maybe in a few hours or so?”

“I’m not sure, Bobby, but I’ll be sure to let her know you called.”

“Okay,” he said. “It’d be great if it’s in no more than a few hours or so…”

“Why?” Melinda looked up as she paused spreading mayo on one of the slices of bread and asked curiously.

“Well.. Because.”

“Because…what?” She insisted.

“Just because. I just would like to talk to her, that’s all.”

“What is so important for you to need to talk to her about so soon today? Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine,” he first said quickly and then returned to his normal slower pace. “There isn’t anything in particular, just wanted to talk. We’re friends—”

“Yes, you said that…”

“Yeah, so I just would like to talk to her…if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, it is—“ Melinda lowered the knife in the jar to swipe out some more of the white condiment, but then paused again. “How did you say you know Janie again?”

“Oh. We go to school together,” Bobby answered.

That perked Melinda’s ears, as her eyes diverted from the hastily prepared sandwich entirely.

“You go to school together?” She repeated.

“Yeah,” he answered softly.

Melinda reflected back on her decision to put Janie in an all-girls middle school for the very reason of not wanting her to be distracted by boys. And yet, here was a boy. Possibly distracting her.

At the same time, she couldn’t help the young girl inside her who felt a twinge of excitement for her daughter. Aww Janie might have her first little boyfriend, she briefly gushed in her mind.

Both as a caring mother and the part of her that was half-excited wanted to know more about this young man, but she didn’t want to have to wait until the whole next day when Janie was due to return home. So, she continued.

“How did you meet at school?” she asked. Probably some boys hanging out around outside the school. She knew the school’s all-boys counterpart was just a couple of miles away. Despite her best efforts to deter, she had figured it was only a matter of time.

“Oh,” he again started, “We have a few classes together.”

Melinda’s right eyebrow then raised along with the middle of her lips as their corners sank.

“Oh yeah, like what?”

“What, what?”

“What classes do you have together?” She asked, slightly annoyed.

“Math,” he answered curtly.

“And…”

“And…what?” He replied, increasingly impatiently.

“You said classes. You only listed one class.”

“Oh… Social studies.”

“Unh huh. And that’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Who’s your social studies teacher?”

“I’m sorry,” Bobby interjected. “Am I in trouble or something?”

“Oh, no,” said Melinda. “I’m just wanting to know a little bit about you because I’ve never heard Janie mention you before.”

“Oh, okay. Well yeah, we know each other from those few classes.”

Melinda felt her anxiety rising, now knowing her daughter had been socializing with a boy that she may or may not have met around her school. It couldn’t have been at school because… No boys.

Where had they actually met? And how? And how long ago?

She began coming up in her head all of the ways she was going to grill Janie as soon as her foot hit their “welcome” mat the next day.

As these thoughts swam through her mind, she looked at the clock, noticing her break very quickly dwindling to when she would need to leave to head back to the office. Somehow, she already had only 15 minutes left. But her curiosity of this boy kept pushing her to inquire further. There was something weird in his voice, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Was it just a feeling? Was she just suspicious because clearly there’s at least some of his story that was a lie? She wasn’t sure.

And could she really fault him, she thought to herself? She remembered when she was that age, when she and her friends weren’t crazy about telling their parents and other adults much, and wasn’t always the most honest with them, either. It’s almost a requirement of the teenage handbook, she internally jested.

Still, she wanted to know more. She knew this next question might push it, but as Janie’s mother, she felt she had a right.

“Are your parents home?” Melinda blurted out, not being able to think of anything else to say or ask but also, for some reason, not yet wanting to hang up.

Silence permeated the call for a few moments.

“Hello?” She asked through the receiver, unsure for a moment if they were still connected.

“Yeah,” Robert quietly acknowledged.

“Oh, then can I speak with them for a second?”

“Oh no, I meant, yeah. I’m here. No, they aren’t home.”

“Oh. Well, where are they?” she asked, shocking even herself at her level of invasiveness of this kid who truthfully didn’t know her from Adam. She could be anyone, for all he knew. How does even know he correctly called Janie’s number? And here she was, grilling him. She started to say “Never mind, don’t worry about it” when Bobby’s voice spoke up first.

“They’re…out,” he reluctantly answered and, sensing an Out where? — even though he felt it really wasn’t any of her business — went ahead and volunteered the additional detail. “Running errands.”

“Oh okay, I see. Well, do you think they could give me a call when they get back?”

A few more moments of silence.

“Hello?” She followed again.

“Umm…” answered Robert. “I just wanted to talk to Janie. It sounds like I’m in trouble.”

“No,” she quickly tried to reassure him. “You’re not in trouble — it just isn’t often that a boy calls to ask for Janie, so I just would like to know who she’s talking to, that’s all. But no, honey, you aren’t in trouble.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“So, you’ll have your parents call me?”

“Sure.”

“And what can I call them when they do?”

“Huh?”

“What are their names? Mr. and Mrs….”

Melinda’s mind began hearing Banks before her ears actually heard…

“Williams.”

“....Williams?”

“Yes.”

“And, what are their first names?”

“Mike. And…Cindy.”

Mike and Cindy Williams? Well, then who’s Robert Banks?

Just as Bobby thought the call was gratefully coming to an end, he began to hear the upward inflection in Melinda’s voice again. I mean, what else could she possibly ask? He frustratingly thought to himself.

“Are you and your family from the area?” She managed to continue.

“No.”

“Oh, then where are you from?”

Without hesitation, Bobby shared “Indianapoli—”

“Hang on,” she interrupted. The volume of the TV seemed to get even louder than before and was making it even harder to hear him. So, she finally pried herself from her almost-complete sandwich and the phone to walk over to the TV to turn it off. She soon found she couldn’t because the Power button was jammed, so she tried several seconds longer, but it wouldn’t budge. She contemplated unplugging it from the wall but knew the ordeal it would take to pull back their big entertainment center and get behind it to do so. So instead, she just hit the Mute button and hurried back to the phone. And her sandwich.

“I’m sorry about that. Indianapolis, you said?” She replied to confirm.

“No,” Bobby answered. "Minneapolis.” 

“Oh. Okay, interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone from Minneapolis before…” She suppressed the usual small-talk decorum to ask him more about the city and how he’d liked it since he’d been in theirs so far. This was, after all, Janie’s friend, she chuckled to herself. And a kid. She could save that conversation for his parents. And Bobby certainly wasn’t going to encourage it. He was quiet again, not saying anything in response.

Still, her curiosity pushed her a bit further. “What brought your family all the way to the West Coast?”

“I don’t know. My parents just wanted to move here.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Yeah… So… Can you just tell Janie I called?” He asked, trying to hide his increasingly obvious irritation.

“Sure, I can. And you’ll tell your parents to give me a call?”

“Yeah. I can.”

“Good.”

A few final moments of silence again permeated.

She continued, “Well, you take care, Bobb—“

Her words trailed as her eyes were caught by the display on the TV. It was the picture of a man’s face in the upper-righthand corner of the screen. She noticed his features were soft, his face free of any facial hair, his lips in a slight mischievous grin. She felt her eyes widening and unease quickly sprouting from the pit of her stomach as she read the words beside the photo:

Robert Banks. 33-year-old male. From Indianapolis, Indiana. Wanted. Repeat convicted sex offender. Goes by different names, known especially for luring teenage girls.

“Hey, Bobby?”

“Yeah?” He answered.

“One more thing,” she said calmly, trying to mask her rapidly growing anxiety.

“How old are you?”