Josie nodded and reached out her small hand to draw on the dusty ground. Clarisse was most grateful for all the dust on the floor; otherwise, she wouldn't have known how to manage without something to write with. Josie couldn't write, and the character had so many strokes. She could only clumsily draw it from memory. Clarisse frowned as she closely examined it—it seemed like the word "tory." When she connected the previous strokes, it spelled out: factory.
She remembered seeing this brand of cable on TV or somewhere else; it must be a factory. She took several deep breaths to calm the excitement rising in her heart, then nodded towards the phone on the nearby table and said to Josie, "Quickly, use that phone to call Daddy. Mommy said you should dial Daddy's number, okay?"
She had previously taught Josie how to recognize numbers, so dialing the phone shouldn't be a problem.
