| OPERATOR: | 911 Emergency. What’s the problem? |
| GIRL: | Hi, um…I think my mom needs an ambulance. |
| OPERATOR: | Is your Mom sick? |
| GIRL: | Uh-huh. She’s on the couch. |
| OPERATOR: | Is she awake or asleep? |
| GIRL: | Asleep. (Background crying) I said “Mom, wake up” and she didn’t say anything. |
| OPERATOR: | Okay, are there any grown ups around? |
| GIRL: | No. |
| OPERATOR: | What’s your name, honey? |
| GIRL: | Paisley Jane Argent. |
| OPERATOR: | That’s a pretty name. Can you tell me where you live? |
| GIRL: | 1175 Forest Way, Clifton, New Jersey. |
| OPERATOR: | (Background crying) Is someone else there with you, Paisley? |
| GIRL: | Beau’s here. |
| OPERATOR: | Who’s Beau? |
| GIRL: | He’s my twin brother. |
| OPERATOR: | How old are you, Paisley? |
| GIRL: | We’re six and four days old. |
| OPERATOR: | You’re very smart to call 911. Did you learn that at school? |
| GIRL: | Mmm-hmm. |
| OPERATOR: | Okay, there’ll be someone to help you real soon. You just keep talking with me and we’ll wait for them. They’re coming. |
C.J. Skuse
Click here to read my biography
An extract from Pretty Bad Things
Chapter One
Paisley
School counsellor’s office, Immaculate Conception Academy, Lodi, New Jersey
Simpson fumbled getting the tape into the VCR. She was all, “Which button is it?” and I was like, “How old are you and you can’t even work a friggin’ VCR?”
“I’d like you to watch this and tell me how you feel about it,” she said, finally getting her fat ass out the way so I could see the screen. The music started over CNN’s flashy intro. The words came up: CNN BREAKING NEWS: SIX-YEAR-OLD NEW JERSEY TWINS MISSING. MOTHER FOUND DEAD. Kim Slaughter appeared, devil-red lipstick, concrete bouffant, grey suit, serious face, shuffling her papers.C
Hello, I’m Kim Slaughter and this is the news you’re waking up to on Monday, March 20th. It’s 7:02 am. We can go live now to our NBC affiliate in New Jersey where Jake Williamson is outside the house where this tragic story is unfolding. Jake, what’s going on down there?
Yeah do tell, Jake, I thought. What is going on down there?
Thanks Kim. And tragic is definitely the operative word in this story. I’m here standing outside the Argent family’s house in Forest Way, Clifton, a quite unassuming residence where an extraordinary story began to unfold earlier today.
Cue montage of worried faces, woman in the red coat biting her lip, tracker dogs in bushes. Then back to Jake.
This is what we know: at three fifty this afternoon, Fae Wong, who lives next door to the Argents, dropped the twins Beau and Paisley home as she normally does every day after school and went home with her own kids. And then approximately five minutes later a 911 operator received this call. Take a listen…
Cue the blue screen and scratchy tape recording.