Ding!
I rolled over and grabbed my phone. A text from my daughter Nicole.
“Ill be home in 10”
“Ok just pls text me when ur home”
“Ljs hme jdhcsdp5”
“ru ok”
I waited for her response, mentally setting a time for how long I would wait before I started freaking out and rehearsing the way to her friends’ places where she had been partying for the New Year.
I decided 15 minutes. I was about an 8 minutes’ drive away from our condo where I lived with Nicole, my nineteen-year-old daughter determined to party hard on New Years Eve.
I was staying over with my best friend Samira and a couple of other close girl friends, also all single moms with kids in the same age range, to ring in the New Year. I’d had the obligatory glass of champagne, but we’d all been careful, knowing we would be chasing round teenagers through the night, and I was perfectly fit to drive at 2 am.
2:08 am.
I headed to the washroom, and obviously at that same moment, my phone began to ring. Damn she’s gonna wake Sammie. I rushed back but the phone stopped ringing. I was fumbling with it while tugging up my pants when it vibrated with another text.
“Who the fuck is in our condo”
I froze.
Nobody was supposed to be in our condo.
My phone started ringing with Nicole’s name flashing on the screen. I answered and her shrieky whisper filled the room. “Mom! Mom! There’s a man in our condo. On the couch - a stranger!!”
Sammie wandered in from the other room. She hadn’t fallen asleep either. “What’s going on?”
She heard my response to Nicole “Honey- don’t go in. Please stay in the hall.”
“But Billie mom- he’s freaking out! A random dude is just asleep on our couch! And I can smell smoke!” I could hear the yowling of our cat Billie through the phone.
“It’s ok Nicole, just wait outside in the hall, I’m coming over.”
“Who the fuck does he think he is, just barging in our place and passing out on our couch? Smoking something? I’m just so mad right now”
Unfortunately Nicole was developing into an angry drunk, just like her dad.
“Nicole- please don’t go in – just stay in the hall. You don’t know who he is and how he’ll react if you wake him. Nicole? Nicole?”
She had hung up on me.
Sammie didn’t need much of an explanation. We raced down to the parking lot, jumped into the car and she swerved out, working together in silent harmony as we had for so many of our kids’ issues and emergencies over the years. I called her back.
“You are calling a number which has not been activated.”
I texted helplessly “Nicole? Ru you outside?”
Ding!
“jiowrti Im IN MOM”
I texted frantically “Nicole- please answer- 2 min away”
Ding!
“Don’t come here” read her text.
My heart seemed to explode. “Hurry hurry hurry” I begged Sammie who had come an obedient stop in the emptying dark streets.
Ding!
“Do j cakpe U thiQRnk its DAD?!!?”
I groaned out loud. Oh God. No, no way her dad would decide to show up and pass out on our couch on new years day. No please god. But some of my fear gave way to anger. I turned to Sammie, that old comforting feeling of women bonding over male disruption giving me relief. “She says it might be her dad”.
Sammie snorted.
Ding!
“I ssssdont xnkathitrnk its Dad houerw cant c his Face”
Another message pooped on my screen. Nicole has shared a video with you.
I clicked on the video. It was barely 3 seconds. It was a shaky footage of our condo living room, full of fog – no smoke. Dim lit only from the streetlights filtered through the blinds. In the dim light, it showed the figure of what seemed like a giant man in khaki pants, curled up in a fetal position and facing the wall, his face hidden. Then a woman’s voice “This isn’t Da-“
It was a whisper, a young woman’s voice but I knew very well that wasn’t Nicole’s voice.
Sammie said softly “Maybe call 911?”
Ding!
“Please don’t come Mom. I’m sorry.”
Instantly all the fear and more came rushing back.
“GET OUT OF THE CONDO” I texted back.
I heard Sammie calling 911, driving with one hand.
Our building was in sight. Noone was around. As we pulled up, I saw the main door of the lobby leading into the building hallway swing, and the slim figure of a woman in a red party dress, her dark hair falling down her back vanish inside. I was confused and couldn’t tell if that was Nicole or not.
Sammie braked just outside the steps into the building, we both jumped out and raced inside. I grappled with my keys trying to let us in. My phone was vibrating furiously.
I punched the elevator buttons- “come on come on come on”.
The elevator seemed stuck somewhere. We turned and began climbing up the stairs – five flights. My phone was silent and I couldn’t check.
As we reached the first floor we heard the elevator doors slide open. I looked through the stairs. There seemed to be a shadow of a figure in the elevator. “Nicki?” I called. There was no answer. The doors whoomped shut.
Eventually, panting and slightly sweaty, we made it to my floor. The elevator opened at the same time we arrived, and Nicole stepped out, looking dishevelled in her skimpy sparkly party dress and rather unfocused, but otherwise fine. “Mom?”
“Oh Nicole!” my heart bursting, I rushed up to her.
“What’s going on?”
We heard the fire engine sirens.
“You texted me- the video?” I heard myself babbling.
“What video? I texted you that I’d be home- stop following me MOM!” she snapped brusquely and leaned against the wall.
I shook my head. We stared at each other and then wordlessly I pulled out my phone to show her. Sammie was at our condo door. She had our keys and let herself in.
“There’s no-one here” she called.
Two firemen and a police officer thudded up the stairs.
Thankfully there was smoke in our condo- but otherwise it was empty.
Nicole denied entering earlier. There were no text messages from her to me in our phones, only my increasingly hysterical messages to her. And the 4 second video remained on my phone. The police dismissed that as a prank video her friends had sent. Maybe it was, I don’t know.
The firemen found no origin for the smoke. Or if they did, the didn’t tell me.
It’s 10am. I’m making morning coffee with Sammie. Nicole is sleeping it off. I don’t think I’ll discuss what happened any more with her. I just want to have a peaceful new year in 2023.