He walked quickly toward me when he saw no one else in the bathroom. Just then, my co-chair, John, dashed into the bathroom, all six feet of him. Can you please come?” he whispered, and his voice broke. “Is this a joke? If it is, it’s not funny.” Maybe I’d entered some kind of warped reality. “And why on earth would you call me?” I held the phone away from my ear to stare down at it. “Leave where?” The absurdity of the situation made my skin tingle. “They won’t let me leave without someone to take care of me.” And when we had spoken before, it never went well. “Why?” I replied, still baffled that he’d called me, and I was even more confused by what he was saying. “I need you to come and get me.” He let out a breath. It actually stopped beating for a second. “Jason,” I said more formally, “what do you want?” “Hello,” I said quietly, pretty sure that someone wanting to sell me an extended car warranty wouldn’t have tried me ten times. Just as I stared down at it, it rang again. I scuttled out of the courtroom as fast as my heels could take me, dashed into the ladies’ room, pulled my phone out of my pocket, and saw that unknown caller who had tried repeatedly. I’d had no less than ten calls in the last five minutes. Then we can all stop being distracted by her phone going off repeatedly.” Bang! went the gavel again.

The defendant next to me fidgeted in her seat. He’d heard it every one of the ten times it had gone off in the past five minutes. The vibration from it was barely detectable. He glared at me from across the big desk behind which he sat. Jenkins, do you need to get that?” he asked. The judge banged the gavel, making me recoil even more. I cringed as my phone vibrated in my purse.

Good Girl Gone by Tammy Falkner