Bail Me Out
Sigrun dialed the number and held the phone to her ear, hearing it ring softly on the other side. Maybe Tuuri wouldn’t pick up. She was probably asleep, and who knew if it would wake her up. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. Of course it wasn’t; practically every single decision she’d made in the past 12 hours had been the wrong one. Sigrun almost hoped Tuuri was asleep, and stayed that way. What would she say? Sigrun should’ve called Mikkel instead, or even her parents. She should’ve—
“Mhhm, hello? Who’s this?” A sleepy, familiar voice filtered through the cold plastic speaker.
“Hey Tuuri! It’s, um, Sigrun!”
“Sigrun? Do you know what time it is?”
“3:27?” Sigrun said, glancing at the clock mounted on the wall.
“Yes. Late. Sleep-time. Why are you—“ Tuuri broke off into a small yawn
“—calling me?”
Sigrun paused, insides squirming. She picked at a blood-encrusted cut on her knuckles, making it bleed all over again. Why was it so much easier to open her mouth when she knew she should keep it shut? Why was she so nervous now, of all times, when a little overconfidence couldn’t hurt? Sigrun forced out a laugh, putting on a show of her usual bravado. Acting strange would only make Tuuri more worried.
“Ha ha, funny you should ask. I’ve had one crazy night, let me tell you! Anyway, I got in a fight, long story tell you later. But I’m kind of at the police station now?”
“What.” Tuuri sounded suddenly very awake.
“This fight got a just a little out of hand and then some jerk called the police soooooo now I’m stuck here until someone can come bail me out.”
“Bail?”
“Yeah, apparently they make you pay money if you don’t want to rot in jail for a few weeks,” Sigrun said. “Who knew?” The police officer behind the desk with all the forms had said a lot more words then that, but she had stopped listening at a certain point. That had probably been another bad decision, Sigrun realized.
“I know what bail is, Sigrun!” Tuuri snapped. “Just—how did—what exactly did you do?!”
“I’ll explain later,” Sigrun said quickly. “Please, Tuuri? Come on, help me out here.”
“Sigrun...” there was a long pause, then a short sigh. “Okay. I’ll be there in 15 minutes. The downtown station?”
“Yeah.”
“How much is it? The bail money?”
“Um.” Sigrun told her. Tuuri swore very loudly.
“Tuuri, please, I know it’s a lot to ask, I can find some way to pay you back,” Sigrun stammered, letting desperation show in her voice. She really didn’t want to be stuck here any longer than she had to. The station’s cramped rooms were already making her feel jumpy and trapped, and the feeling was likely to only get worse if she ended up getting locked in a tiny cell all night. But Sigrun had gotten herself into this mess, and if Tuuri wouldn’t help her get out of it, she couldn’t blame her. “Actually never mind, I’ll figure something else out. I don’t mind spending the night here, how bad can it be?” A frowning, uniformed woman entered the room. She glared at Sigrun pointedly while tapping her watch. Time’s up.
“Ah crap, I’m gonna have to hang up.” The policewoman proceeded to cross her arms and glare with increased vehemence at Sigrun. “Tuuri...”
Tuuri sighed again, longer this time. “I’m on my way. We can talk about this later.” She sounded far too serious, nothing close to her usual cheerful self. It scared Sigrun more than the prospect of facing down a pack of hungry wild dogs. At least that was a problem you might be able to punch your way out of.
“Thank you,” Sigrun said.
Click. Without another word, Tuuri hung up.
