Free Baby Please Don't Go: A Novel by Frank Freudberg

is all.”
    Talking with Natalie triggered memories of things Lock had forgotten—like the time he was convinced he was going to flunk fifth grade. His father had persuaded him that he was such an underachiever that the teacher and principal had discussed it and they’d decided Lock would need to repeat the year.
    It had been an artless falsehood designed to get Lock to work harder in school. When Lock tearfully approached his teacher and told him of his fears, the teacher assured him that whomever had told him that was a malicious liar.
    And Natalie told Lock, in the midst of their midnight phone call, that something in their conversations reminded her of the time she kicked the neighborhood bully in the nuts when he snuck up behind her and snapped her bra strap against her back.
    “I don’t know what made me think of that,” she told him. “But my mind goes to wild places when I talk to you.”
     
    At times, their calls had the essence of phone sex—lots of lengthy silences, deep breaths, visions of what the other party was doing. The calls were innocent, though sometimes Lock would notice a long pause from Natalie’s side of the line, and then he’d hear a throaty sigh. That caused him to wonder exactly what she was doing. When he asked, she said she was just sleepy, but quickly added that she didn’t want to say goodnight.
    The more he learned about her—her dedication to yoga, her love of reading books about personal growth, her juvenile sense of humor—she liked to pretend she didn’t recognize Lock’s voice and demand that whoever had answered his phone had better put him on the line immediately—the more he liked her. Her impoverished childhood wasn’t the cliché he’d feared it’d be. She didn’t realize she was poor at the time, and told Lock that she had been happy, with many friends and a good relationship with her parents. In her early childhood, they took her to Disney World three times before both her parents got laid off from their blue-collar jobs. When she turned seventeen a few years later, she moved out into an apartment with a girlfriend and worked three jobs to pay her rent and help her parents out.
     
    The way Natalie talked about her girls impressed Lock.
    She loved them so much, she said, and Witt’s distance from them saddened her. That was one of the things about her that was so attractive to Lock. It wasn’t hard for him to imagine them having children together. It wasn’t hard for him to picture her being a loving mom and wife. A family was what he wanted, and Natalie seemed to fit the image of the kind of woman he ached for. He understood he knew very little about her, and he hoped he’d learn more over time, but the conflict with his job kept nagging at him.
     
    In another conversation one night, fatigue got the best of Lock and he caught himself falling asleep as he listened to Natalie talking about being physically abused by a former boyfriend. That was a subject that would definitely interest him, so nearly falling asleep was a clear signal that he should end the call and go to bed. He waited for an opening and told Natalie that he just couldn’t stay awake any longer. He looked at the clock displayed on the cable TV box.
    “My God,” he said. “It’s almost four.”
    “Yes,” Natalie said, “we’ve broken our record.”
    Lock yanked the handle on the recliner and it folded down into its normal position. He stood up.
    “I’ll let you go, then,” Natalie said. “Get some sleep and save some kids tomorrow.”
    “It’s already tomorrow,” he said, “but I’ll take your advice.”
    “Goodnight, baby,” she said.
    “Goodnight, Natalie.”
    “Just for the record,” she said, wanting to extend the call, “I think I’m falling for you, so be careful with me. Be gentle.”
    Then he said it. It just slipped out. “I can say the same to you.”
    “Good,” she said, sounding exhilarated by his admission, “and goodnight.” He heard the click. It was