“Hi, you’ve reached 279-510-8610. If you didn’t dial the wrong number, leave a message.”

Jenna had quickly written down the numbers, reaching for the first pen and paper she could find. "Apparently, this Paul guy has never had a call go through to Davis’ voicemail," she thought. If he had, he’d be a little less protective of the phone number.

This made her smile.

She then hung up without leaving a message.

The voice in the message was a little exasperated. “He must get a lot of wrong numbers?” she thought.

An idea that never crossed her mind was that so few people called him that a voicemail was superfluous. It was true, as he’d never had more than six people programmed into his phone at one time.

She didn’t linger too much on dissecting his outgoing voicemail message. She instead revisited the number. She looked it over closely and made sure it was written legibly while the numbers were still fresh in her mind. She adjusted a couple digits to make them more clear and went over a couple more with a nervous energy.

Jenna did not know, but Davis never answered his phone for unknown calls. She assumed he was busy or unavailable. Either way, she wouldn’t call back right away. Instead, she looked at the number and ran through possible conversations in her head. In several instances, the imaginary conversation brought tears to her eyes.

The next morning was the time, she thought. There were idyllic conditions. It was morning, but not too early. She had her coffee and a properly rehearsed conversation. She'd also written a couple of notes of points she had to make on a piece of scratch paper.

She dialed and waited. After two rings, a connection.

“Hi, you’ve reached 279-5...”

Jenna hung up frustrated.

“He’s screening calls,” she said aloud, realizing the call went to voicemail way too quick. “What the fuck?”

After a beat, she continued talking to no one in the empty apartment. “This is not a voicemail conversation, dammit.” There was no anger in her voice, but rather an assertiveness meant to bolster her resolve a bit more.

“He’s awake. I can call until he answers.”

And that’s what she did. After two more calls were sent to voicemail, she found success.

“Hello?” said a voice slightly deeper and a bit more skeptical than the voicemail. He used a voice deeper than his own because he felt it was less identifiable as his own. He thought he could pivot to “wrong number” more believably. More to the point, he over-thought it: He doesn't answer numbers he doesn't recognize.

“Davis?” offered Jenna in an optimistic tone. She almost choked up at that one word and feared her planning would all be for naught.

“Ummm.... yeah. Who is this?”

“Jenna,” she said, excitement overtaking the nerves. Most of her energy now went to remaining calm and not letting her emotions take over.

“Jenna who? Do I know you?” The voice was losing some of the depth but increasing in skepticism.

On the verge of tears, Jenna was able to get out, “Your sister,” before breaking down silently. She covered her mouth with her hand so as not to let her emotion come through on the phone.

The line went dead.

Davis hung up his phone abruptly and threw it halfway across the room onto the sofa. He’d been sitting at the counter reading the news when the call came through. He was dismissive of the number as it hadn’t left a voicemail the night before when it came through. After three successive calls, he thought it may actually be for him.

The fact that it was his sister or, someone claiming to be his sister, was a shock. He paced around his apartment debating whether to trust the phone call or not. No one had ever reached out pretending to be a relative before. Sometimes he’d receive unsolicited calls after someone had found out who he really was. But, those instances were rare since he'd changed his phone number twice over the years. Also, he doubted Lucy would have given out his number.

He was still thinking when the phone vibrated on his couch. The faint sound startled him at first. Then it scared him.

Jenna was thrown for a loop when the call dropped. She didn’t know if it was an accident or what, but she suspected he may have hung up on her. This pissed her off. When started to call back, she felt less of the soft emotions bubbling up.

“Hello,” the deep voice on the other end of the phone answered. The voice was now audibly nervous.

“What the fuck, dude,” it wasn’t a question, or at least it did not come out as when Jenna blurted it out. She had not considered that has an approach to this call, but when it came out of her mouth, she decided to lean into it.

“Jenna? Is that really you?”

“Do you want to talk to me or not?” this part she regretted. It was a bit harsh, but she was hoping to cut through the misgivings quickly.

Davis did not immediately respond, but Jenna did not bail him out. She let the silence linger.

“Sorry," he finally said. "I'll be honest, I was not expecting you to call me. Or anyone for that matter.” He paused. “How are you?”

Jenna softened quick. This is what she wanted: to catch up. And that's what they did. For 20 minutes they chatted about their lives. She gave a broad overview of the family dynamic and talked about how she found him. She also talked about Trent and her upcoming wedding. For his part, Davis talked about the last five years. Nothing before that. Mostly, though, he listened contently.

“You’re an author?”

“'Writer.' I started writing when I had a lot of free time and found a publisher. When it panned out, I leaned into it. It allows me to work remotely and, well, I can limit who I interact with.”

There was a sadness in his voice. They both heard it and they were snapped out of the small talk phase of the conversation. He was skeptical when he continued and she became nervous again.

“So, why are you calling me?” he started, adding, “Not that I’m not glad you did. It seems after 13 years, there was probably a reason.”

Jenna took a deep breath. She had debated this part of the conversation in her pre-call preparations. He plan was to lead with Derrick so he would not think it disingenuous when she invited him to her wedding.

“Well, it’s Derrick. He was injured in the line of duty a while back…”

“Is he alright?” Davis interrupted. He’d not been called when their mother was diagnosed with cancer or died. No one reached out when their father passed. He was surprised he’d be called for Derrick. Perhaps he asked her to call for some deathbed reunion. If that was the case, he would politely decline.

“For the most part, he’s fine. The injury severely damaged his kidneys, though. And then he didn’t get the right treatment right away. I don’t know if the doctor messed up or if Derrick was a dumbass, or even if treatment would have avoided this. He needs a new kidney and a recent match fell through. We were all tested—like the whole city was tested, it seems—and no one is a match. In the family, we are all O-positive blood and only you two are O-negative.”

Davis was a bit crestfallen. He didn't think this was a reunion call, but he was surprised to get a call asking for a kidney. He was disappointed with the circumstances. He was silent and laid his head in his free hand.

“Plus,” Jenna chimed in happily. It was a tone Davis thought was inappropriate considering the circumstances. She continued, “My wedding. I know it’s short notice, but I want you to come to my wedding.”

This did not have the effect she intended. It compounded Davis' feelings that this call was transactional in nature. In exchange for a call with his sister and attending her wedding, he just needs to donate a kidney. Jenna again realized how this sounded and winced. She efforted to match her tone to the conversation more appropriately.

“Look, we’ve had too many things happen in this family where we were not altogether. I’m not A.J. I’m not Derrick. You and I have a great history until I was, like, eight and that’s it. I don’t know what happened with you or what you did, and I don’t care. People keep telling me this is the most important day of my life. If I can’t get you to come, then how important can it be?”

Both siblings were now crying, each trying to remain silent to hide it from the other. After a couple of minutes, Jenna collected herself and spoke next.

“I know it may not seem like it, but I’ve thought about you a lot over the last 13 years. Talking about you with our family, the guys and aunts, uncles, and whatever, is not welcome. That doesn’t mean I forgot about you. I understood the situation in our family early and was never in a position to change that. Even now, if Derrick didn't need a kidney I wouldn't be able to invite you. Well, not without an uncomfortably large contingent of family getting upset."

She anticipated the end of this conversation, so she put everything out there. Yes, she wanted him to donate a kidney, but that didn't change the fact that she wanted him at her wedding. She only hoped that this came across.

There was another bit of silence on the line.

“Can I keep this number?” she said

Davis finally spoke.

“Yes. You can keep it,” he offered, coming out of a daze. “I appreciate everything you said, and I understand that you are going through a lot. I want to help you, but I don’t know what I’m going to do."

He took a breath and continued, "I want you to know that those people—the aunts and uncles—are not lost to me. I don’t think about them at all, or at least with fondness or thoughts that I miss them. As for A.J. and J.D., that's complicated. I wrote them off a long time ago. You... I’m sorry about everything that happened. It was not easy leaving you back then. For a while at least, I thought we'd talk again. Lately, I haven't considered a call like this an option.”

Jenna nodded along as he talked, tears continuing to well her eyes and a tightness creeping in her throat.

“You have no idea how much this call and your words mean to me,” he continued. “I don’t know what A.J. and Derrick think of you calling or the prospect of me coming to town. But it means the world to me that you called and said what you said."

"It might not sound like it,” he continued, in reference to his quiet methodical tone, “but this is something that has been missing from my life for a long time.”

She was now openly sobbing with her head in her free hand. Her untied hair spilled over the front of her head and put her in a cocoon. It felt like it was only her and Davis in the world. It was a feeling she relished and wanted to live in for a little while longer.

Davis was in a similar headspace, content to sit on the phone with his little sister, even in silence.

They could sence each other’s silent emotions through the phone. It remained silent for several minutes and it seemed like this had the potential to go on for hours. Jenna blew her nose to finally break the silence.

“Can we talk again later?” she asked. “Maybe I could give you a call in a couple days and we can talk a bit more about what’s been going on for the last 13 years?”

“I’d like that,” Davis said. “Whenever works for you. I don’t often have things going on which I can’t drop.”

“Thanks. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“You too,” he started to finish before interjecting, “The wedding and everything…”

“Yes?” she asked with a bit of excitement in her voice.

“I’ll, uh, text you and let you know.”

“Thanks,” she said, smiling as if he could see her.

“Bye,” he finished and hung up the phone.