When he cracks his swollen eyelids open, the Maestro is on her knees, pulling Joey’s crumpled body into her arms and sobbing. Huge sobs. They shake her to the core of her bones. Beck pulls himself to his feet and staggers out of the room. He’s made out of cement and each step weighs a hundred kilos. He finds the phone in the kitchen and nearly drops it before he can get the number in. It takes him five tries to follow the line of wobbling digits on the card from his pocket. Is the phone dead? He can’t hear the dial tone. Until faintly, like a tiny pinpoint of light, he hears someone pick up.
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