Sophie (4) woke up one morning to find her mother still asleep. For her, this was very unusual as her mother always woke up before her. And when she tried to wake her mother, she noticed nothing worked. As the hours ticked by and her mother was still asleep, Sophie started to feel something could be wrong. So, she called the only number she knew to remember… “911, what’s your emergency?” This was the only number she knew to call because her mother had told her to memorize it for emergencies. Tears welled up in her eyes as she paused before she answered. “My mommy has been asleep all day,” Sophie said. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she talked to the operator.  The 911 operator was shocked to hear such a small child on the other side of the line. He quickly got an image of the situation and sent police and an ambulance to her address. But when the police arrived at the apartment building, getting inside seemed to be harder than they thought. Time was ticking, and everyone knew this. They knew there was only one thing they could do to get inside. But when the officers were finally able to enter the house, they were shocked by what they saw… But what shocked the officers? What was going on with Sophie’s mother? And will she get better? It was just the two of them, Sophie, who was only four years old, and her mother, Hanna. Sophie’s father had never been in the picture. He’d left them as soon as Hanna told him the news about her pregnancy. But he wasn’t missed. Hanna had always made sure that Sophie was cared for. Mornings were their favorite time of the day. They would wake up, eat breakfast together, and Hanna would play music and dance in the kitchen with her daughter. Then, Sophie would go to daycare, and Hanna would go to work. But today was different, and Sophie could sense it from the start.  As soon as Sophie woke up, she felt something was different about her mother. She wasn’t her happy self and could barely open her eyes. Usually, Hanna would turn off the alarm clock, but she hadn’t moved an inch since it went off. So, Sophie got up to turn it off.  Sophie stood next to her mother’s bedside and stared at her. “She must be very tired,” Sophie thought. She was too young to understand something could be terribly wrong. So, Sophie took it upon herself to get dressed and go to the living room. Expecting her mother to follow her shortly, but she never did… Time ticked by, and Sophie’s mother was still sound asleep in bed. Sophie had turned on the Tv and watched her usual morning show. But her tummy eventually started growling. Why wasn’t her mother up and dancing in the kitchen? So she decided to check up on her one more time. Sophie slowly opened the door to her mother’s bedroom. “Mom?” she asked worriedly. “Mom, are you awake yet? I’m hungry.” But there came no response. She carefully walked over to the bed and climbed on top. “Mommy,” she said again while shaking her mother’s shoulders. She now began to feel really worried. Her mother did not respond. Sophie’s heart began to race. Panic rose in her little body, and tears started to well up in her eyes. She felt helpless and didn’t know what to do. But by now, she knew something could be very wrong. Sophie was all alone and didn’t know what to do… Sophie tried to wake her mother up one more time by shouting her name. And to her surprise, her mother let out a little faint moan. Why won’t she wake up? Sophie thought. But then she remembered something her mother had taught her. Something that could potentially save her mother’s life.  Her mother had told her about a number she could call if something were wrong. She had no idea who this person was, but that didn’t matter at that moment. She ran downstairs and searched for her mother’s phone. She looked on the table, in her mother’s purse, and in her jacket, but she couldn’t find it. Finally, Sophie found the phone on the side table next to the couch. She quickly ran upstairs and unlocked the phone by holding it in front of her mother’s face. She had seen her mother do that many times. She had to think very hard to remember the number but eventually figured it out.  “9.. 1.. 1..” she dialed with trembling fingers. She held the phone by her ear and worryingly looked at her mother. “Don’t worry, mommy,” she said. “I will get you some help.”  “911, what’s your emergency?” a man asked her.  “Uhm, my mommy has been asleep all day,” she said. The man on the other line seemed to be surprised by Sophie’s voice.  “Hello, what’s your name, darling?” he asked her kindly. “Sophie,” Sophie said confidently. “Can you come and help me?” “You said your mommy is asleep all day? Is your daddy around, Sophie?” the man asked, not reacting to Sophie’s question. “No,” Sophie said. “It’s just my mommy and me. But she never woke up this morning.”  “Alright, Sophie, I need you to stay on the line, okay?” the operator said. “Where is your mommy now?” “She’s in bed in her room. Will you send the police and an ambulance? I’m still in my pajama.”  “Yes, Sophie, but I have a few more questions, okay?” The operator tried to talk as loud and clear as he could. This was very important because children are usually easily distracted, so he had to do his best to get Sophie to stay on the line. But luckily, Sophie knew her mother could be in danger. So, she took this situation very seriously. “Alright, Sophie. This is a very important question. I need to know where you live, so the police will find you.” the operator said. Sophie started to feel panicked again. She didn’t know where she lived. But she suddenly remembered her mother had kept a note somewhere with their address on it.  “Please wait a minute,” Sophie said. “I will be right back.” “Wait, Sop-” the operator tried, but she was already gone. Sophie ran to the front door and pulled the note off the wall. Then, she ran back to her mother’s room. “I’m back,” she said happily. “And I have the note.” Sophie told the operator her address and waited. She stayed on the line with the operator the whole time and answered all his questions. He asked her if her mother was hurt, if she was breathing, and other important questions. But it was taking a very long time for the ambulance to arrive. She was only four years old, so Sophie had no track of time. But even she could sense that the ambulance should’ve been her by now, but she didn’t even hear the sirens yet. She was still by her mother’s side and told her reassuring words, not knowing if her mother could hear her or not.  Her mother was still breathing, but it didn’t look good. She took long pauses between breaths, and when Sophie placed her hand on her mother’s forehead, as her mother always did to her when she was feeling ill, she could feel her mother burning up. But then, she finally heard something. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Sophie heard the sirens. She ran to the living room to wait for them to arrive. She could hear heavy footsteps running up the stair of their apartment building and stopping in front of their door. “Sophie?!” one of the men yelled. “I’m in here!” she answered. Sophie’s heart was pounding in her chest. She had never experienced something like this before. “Sophie, we need you to open the door for us,” someone yelled from the other side of the door. But that wasn’t as easy as they thought. Sophie was way too small to reach the door handle.  She tried to stand on her toes to reach the handle, but she could only touch it with her fingertips. “I can’t reach it,” Sophie said. But she wasn’t about to give up. She knew she had to open the door for those men. Otherwise, they could never help her mother. Sophie took a step backward and scanned the room. There had to be something she could use to stand on. But, since Sophie was still so small, she couldn’t see much. Then, she remembered where her mother kept the pots and pans. She might be able to stand on one of those to reach the handle.  She quickly ran to the kitchen and opened all the cupboards she could reach. Finally, she opened the cupboard with the pots and pans, but when she tried to lift one up, it was way too heavy. The metal slipped out of Sophie’s little hands, and she dropped the pan on the floor.  She had to think of something else. The men were counting on her. Sophie shook off her frustration and searched for something else. She ran through the living room and frantically searched for an object she could stand on. And finally, when she stood on her tippy toes to look on the table, she found something. There was a little black box in the middle of the dining table. So, Sophie pulled out a chair, climbed on top, and carefully climbed onto the table. She pushed the box off the table and climbed down herself. The box was made of cardboard and filled with papers. So it was light enough for Sophie to carry to the door. But when she put the box in front of the door, stepped on, and tried to reach the handle, she was once again struck with disappointment. She was still too small. “I can’t reach,” Sophie said with a trembling voice. There had to be something she could use, she thought. And suddenly, it dawned on her.  A chair! Of course, why didn’t she think of that before? Sophie quickly ran back to the table and grabbed a chair. But it was way too heavy for her to lift up. So, she started to tub the chair toward the door. It was a slow process, but little by little, she got closer to the door. Sophie felt the adrenaline race through her body. She was almost there. Her hard work wouldn’t be for nothing. But then, something happened. The chair got caught on by a rug and wouldn’t move anymore. Sophie tugged a bit harder, and the chair began to move again, but this time, it wasn’t in a good way. Because the chair began to tilt, Sophie tripped. She fell on the ground face first and couldn’t turn around fast enough to see that the chair was slowly leaning her way. And before she knew it, the chair fell on top of her. Sophie screamed as the hard wooden chair trapped her on the ground.  Luckily, she wasn’t hurt, but she couldn’t get up anymore. The chair was too heavy for her to get off. She tried to get on her hands and knees and push the chair up with her back, but she couldn’t. “Sophie? Are you okay?” the man asked her. They could hear the rumbling noises and Sophies scream through the door.  The police knew what to do next. “Don’t worry, Sophie! We will be with you in a few minutes!” one of the officers yelled through the door. But Sophie couldn’t help but feel panicked. How were the officers going to enter her house if the door was locked? But then, she heard something. She heard the police officers mumbling outside of the door, and it almost sounded like a few of them were walking down the stairs again. Sophie’s little mind instantly feared they had given up and were about to leave her, but of course, that was far from true. “Please don’t leave me!” she cried.  “We won’t leave you, darling!” an officer responded. “We’re just grabbing a few supplies from downstairs. Hold on tight, and don’t be scared! You will hear a loud bang in a couple of seconds.” Sophie listened carefully and tried to stay as calm as possible. But her heart was pounding in her chest. She wondered what the police were going to do. She couldn’t think of a way they could get in, without her opening the door for them. The rumbling and murmuring noises filled Sophie’s head as she tried to understand what they were saying. “Alright, Sophie,” A second officer suddenly said. “Cover your ears.” Sophie closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears. She had no idea what was going to happen next but trusted the officers. She took a few deep breaths, and suddenly, the officers started counting down from three to one. What were they going to do? Sophie thought. “3.. 2.. 1!” A loud blow echoed through the living room. Sophie felt the floor shake a little. Her body tensed up as she felt very frightened. After that, it stayed quiet for a few seconds. But when she was just about to lift her hands off her ears when another blow pounced through the apartment. She heard a third blow and could see the front door move a little. Then, she suddenly realized what they were trying to do. They were trying to break down the door with something! A fourth blow followed soon after, and Sophie could now see splitters flying off the door. The floor shook again. Sophie wanted to see what they were trying to do, but she was too scared to lift her hands off her ears. What if they banged again, just as her ears were uncovered? she thought. So, she carefully opened only one eye instead and looked at the door. Sophie quickly closed her eyes again and waited for it all to be over. Many more loud blows to the door followed. It almost felt like it would never stop. Sophie couldn’t help but feel scared. She quietly cried as she waited for the door to fall down. But, It never did… Suddenly, the blows stopped. Sophie opened her eyes but was worried to see the door was still in its place. Why did they stop? she thought. Well, breaking the door down didn’t seem to work, so the police had to think of something else they could do. But Sophie was losing her patience. Sophie could hear the police speak to each other, but it didn’t sound good. They were mumbling to each other and occasionally yelled something down the stairs. But it wasn’t enough anymore. Sophie had lost her trust in the police and felt like she was on her own once again.  She heard rumbling noises, and they were clearly trying lots of things to get inside. But it was taking way too long for Sophie. So, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She was done being trapped on the floor and wanted to help her mother. So, she carefully looked around her. Suddenly, Sophie noticed that the legs of the chair were still on the rug that it tripped over. She reached with her arm to see if she could get her fingers in between the chair and the carpet, and to her surprise, it worked. Sophie took a deep breath because she knew the next part would be very difficult.  Sophie had to muster up all her strength to push the leg away. It hadn’t worked before, but she didn’t want to give up. She figured the chair only had to move a small part for her to be able to crawl away. So she counted down in her head and gave the chair one big push.  To Sophie’s surprise, the chair began to move, and Sophie was finally able to crawl away. She cheered herself on and was so proud of herself for pushing through. She immediately ran to her mother to tell her what she had accomplished but was painfully reminded that she was still sleeping. Sophie sighed. Nothing about this day had gone as she had planned. Her tummy was rumbling from hunger, her mother’s situation hadn’t improved, and the police were still trying to get inside the apartment. A tear rolled down Sophie’s cheek as she stroked her mother’s arm. “Please hold on, Mommy. I need you.” Then, all of a sudden, Sophie heard a loud bang. She ran to the living room to see if the police were finally able to come inside, and they were! The door of the apartment lay flat on the ground, and within seconds, their apartment was filled with police officers and paramedics.  Sophie ran into the arms of one of the officers and hugged him tightly. When he put her down again, she grabbed him by the hand and quickly led him to her mother. He immediately called for the paramedics to come into the room, and they checked her pols. But something worried Sophie… None of them seemed happy. The officers looked around them with shocked looks on their faces, and the paramedics hurried her mother onto a stretcher. Sophie didn’t understand why everyone seemed to be in such a hurry to get out of this room. But she would later find out the truth. She knew, or at least hoped, her mother would be well cared for. But she still wondered why the police were so shocked when they entered their house. She knew she had made a bit of a mess while trying to open the door, but it wasn’t that bad, was it? They put Sophie and her mother into an ambulance and drove to the nearest hospital. Inside the ambulance, they put a mask over her mother’s mouth. Sophie had mixed feelings looking at her mother. She was excited to be in an ambulance for the first time, but the sight of her mother scared her. But little did she know it wasn’t about the mess at all. There was something else inside their apartment that explained everything, but Sophie was too young to understand. She had to wait for her mother to wake up, and only then would the police explain everything as well as they could.  At the hospital, they hooked Sophie’s mother onto various machines, which looked terrifying to Sophie. She had no idea what the machines were for, and no one wanted to tell her. Probably because she wouldn’t understand, but still. “Will my mommy be okay?” she worryingly asked a nurse. But she just answered with an uncertain smile. Luckily, Sophie’s grandmother arrived soon after. The police had contacted her about what had happened and asked her to come. She was just about to start cooking dinner, but immediately rushed over when she heard about her daughter’s situation. She wouldn’t let her granddaughter go through this all by herself.  Sophie was ecstatic to see a familiar face after such a hectic day. She ran to her grandmother, snuggled up in her arms, and told her everything. It didn’t seem to get any better with Hanna for a while, but after a few hours, she slowly began to wake up.  Hanna moved her head from side to side and slowly opened her eyes. She was very confused about what had happened and didn’t realize she was in a hospital at first. Her eyes widened as she looked around the room. “Where am I?” she frightfully asked. But she calmed down as soon as she saw Sophie. Sophie told her proudly how brave she had been all day and that she was the one who had called 911. Hanna was still very confused, but she was glad to see her daughter was okay. While she talked to her daughter, Hanna’s mother quickly got up and called for a nurse to come to the room. Shortly after Hanna woke up, police entered her room. They began to ask her what had happened, but Hanna had no idea. She went to bed feeling a bit dizzy, but the rest was all very blurry. The officers looked very serious and wrote everything down. But then, they finally explained everything. When the officers were finally able to get inside the apartment, they immediately noticed something. There was a specific smell lingering around, but they didn’t connect it to anything yet. But as soon as they entered Hanna’s bedroom, they were shocked to realize the smell had worsened and probably had come from there. They immediately investigated the situation and found mold growing behind the bed, behind the closet, and in some corners of the ceiling. The mold was slowly spreading throughout the house and was probably the reason why Hanna was so sick and drowsy. The mold was toxic, and if Sophie hadn’t called 911, it could’ve ended badly for them both. Hanna was so proud of her daughter for handling the situation so well. She felt stupid for not noticing the mold sooner. Sophie was also checked for any symptoms, but luckily for her, she was perfectly healthy. The doctors don’t know why the mold only infected Hanna and not Sophie, but they were happy it didn’t. As soon as Hanna started to feel better, she called the concierge of the building to explain the situation. There was no way they would go back there if there were still mold inside. The concierge was shocked to hear something like this had happened, and immediately called the owner of the building. The owner couldn’t believe his ears and immediately called for the other apartments to be checked. Something like black mold is very dangerous and shouldn’t be taken lightly. He rushed over to the building to assist with the check-ups and offered Hanna a temporary stay until their apartment was cleaned. It turned out that there was a big mold outbreak in the building, and every apartment had to be cleaned. It was a big operation that took several weeks to be finished. Everyone in the building was shocked that this had happened and sent their good wishes to Hanna and Sophie. The mold was discovered just in time. If it had grown any longer without being discovered, The whole building would’ve been infected. Even though Hanna ended up being hospitalized, she was glad that she was the one who got sick. Because of her, the mold was discovered, and other people were saved from the mold. Sophie was forever changed after this eventful day. But in a positive way. She felt more confident in who she was and more independent as well. She was very proud that she had saved her mother. The mold never returned to their apartment, and Sophie grew up to become a paramedic herself and continued to save lives. The end.