Chapter 1

A Very Rude Awakening

“Tommy . . . Tommy . . . .”

Tommy hadn’t gotten much sleep the last couple of days and the hushed sounds of his mother’s voice were simply lost in his dreams.

His mother stepped into his room, knelt down at the side of his tousled bed, and rubbed his arm tenderly. “Tommy . . .” she repeated a little louder hoping to reach some semi-conscious place in his mind and gently coax him from his slumber, but he was completely oblivious to her attempts. “Tommy!” she called fretfully as she shook his shoulder gently. “I’m sorry, honey, but you have to wake up!”

Tommy began to stir, drew a long, deep breath, then slowly turned over and propped himself up on his elbow. His mother’s face was lit by the dim glow of the old, digital alarm clock he kept on a plastic milk crate at the side of his bed, and he could see she was anxious about something. He was befuddled and still half asleep but managed to mumble, “What’s going on, Mom?”

“I’m sorry to wake you, sweetheart,” she apologized, “but you have a phone call.”

Tommy raised his free hand to his face, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, then turned his head to see the time.I guess I’m not used to the new time zone, he thought as the fuzzy digits started coming into focus. The clock read 8:30 a.m., but it seemed much too dark for that time of morning. He sat up on the edge of his bed but was still entirely unable to make sense of what was happening.

“Please hurry,” Tommy’s mother said as she tenderly stroked his disheveled hair. “He’s waiting—I’ll go tell him you’re on your way.”

Tommy stretched his elbows back and yawned deeply as he tried to shake the impulse to lie down and go back to sleep. He put his hands on his knees and was about to stand when he caught another glimpse of the clock. He was seeing more clearly now and couldn’t believe his eyes—it was only 3:30 a.m.!

Who in the world could be calling me in the middle of the night,Tommy wondered. But what surprised him even more was the fact someone outside of his family knew he was home. He had been in Panama for twenty-seven months working in the Peace Corps and had only been home for six hours.

Tommy was easygoing and usually unflappable, but he was exhausted and the even