Free Chosen by Lesley Glaister

into the air, into the hum. Her knees feel shaky with it. She gives in, just for now. There’s nowhere to sit but the meditation stool anyway. She kneels and shuts her eyes, nothing else to do. The humming gets into you, the three notes, no – one, no – two, no – four now, and the fourth coming timidly from herself; she can hear a gap in the chord that must be filled and it lifts you up and sets you outside the everyday and the waiting and why not when there’s nothing else to do?
    And then Martha enters the room. She blinks and smiles at them all, nodding at Dodie as if pleased. Dodie gets up, looks past her – but there’s no Seth.
    â€˜Where is he?’ she asks, stumbling up, light-headed.
    Martha doesn’t answer immediately. The others gradually cease the humming, blink and grasp their own left thumbs. It’s a kind of salute, she realizes.
    â€˜Eh?’ she says. ‘Where is he?’
    Martha holds out a cordless phone. ‘Here he is to speak to you.’
    Dodie takes the phone, warm from Martha’s hand. She walks towards the wall, turning her back on them all, hoping they’ll take the hint and let her speak to her brother in private, but they don’t leave. Martha says something to them and Rebecca laughs, a snort followed by a donkeyish bray.
    Dodie sticks her other finger in her ear. ‘Seth?’
    â€˜Hi, Dode.’ That familiar broken scrape in his voice, but oddly distorted, sort of muffled and warped.
    â€˜Where? Where are you?’
    Silence.
    â€˜Speak to me, Seth,’ she says. She rests her forehead against the cool plaster of the wall, shuts her eyes, trying to conjure up his face.
    He says something too blurred to hear.
    â€˜What? Speak up.’
    â€˜You shouldn’t have come.’ It’s a poor signal.
    â€˜You told me to come!’
    She can just make out a female voice in the background.
    Seth says, ‘Why did you leave Jake?’
    â€˜How do
you
know that?’
    Silence.
    â€˜I didn’t want to disrupt him. He’s got a cold.’
    â€˜Is he OK?’
    â€˜Just a cold. Look, I need to speak to you. Face to face.’
    There’s a hissing silence.
    â€˜Seth!’ She can feel a smothered bristle of interest from the others in the room. Her eyelids bulge with tears. ‘Seth? Don’t do this to me.’
    â€˜Bye,’ he says.
    Sweat blooms in her armpits and on her palms. She swaps the phone to the other hand and wipes her hand on her jeans. ‘I’ve come all this way to see you. Please.’
    But the call is cut off.
    â€˜Seth,’ she says, into the buzz. ‘Seth!’
    Martha eases the sweaty phone from her hand. ‘He’ll see you tomorrow,’ she says.
    She glares at Martha. ‘But that’s what you said last night.’
    â€˜Stay.’ Rebecca looks to Martha. ‘She can stay here with us? Can’t she, Martha? We’ll take care of her. It’ll be cool.’ She grins at Dodie.
    â€˜No. I’m going back to the hotel,’ she says. ‘My stuff’s there. I need to change. I suppose I’ll come back tomorrow.’
    â€˜Of course. I’ll call you a taxi,’ Martha begins – then pauses. ‘But maybe you
should
think of staying another night? Nearly a hundred bucks there and back?’
    â€˜And all the hassle,’ John adds.
    â€˜Nicer if you stay,’ Daniel says.
    â€˜Do,’ Rebecca urges. ‘I could do with a
girl
buddy.’ She pulls a face at John and Daniel.
    â€˜Stay,’ says John.
    â€˜It’s even possible you
might
see Seth later today,’ Martha says. ‘And what a shame if you’re not here. Imagine how disappointed he’ll be.’
    Dodie looks at them all. Rebecca has the sort of smile you’d need to be inoculated against, a little twitch of her freckled nose. She sighs. What else has she got to do? ‘I suppose that makes sense. Can I use