Disappeared

by Lucienne Diver

  “Right,” Jared said. “Of course. Just, like you say, I want to do something. I feel like Mom would have left some clue.…”

  “If she did, the police will find it.” She looked past him suddenly, said, “Oh!” and pressed the volume button on the remote until Jared’s eardrums were about to shatter.

  Her show was back. They were done here.

  Jared excused himself a second later. Like Emily, he leaned in to give Gran a parting kiss on the cheek. She did not squeeze his hand or tell him he was a lovely boy. Instead, she craned around him to see the next clue. He tried not to take it personally.

  Seventeen

  Saturday

  Emily

  Emily was struggling to focus on homework at the breakfast bar when the call came in. She’d have preferred the kitchen table, but Dad had tax stuff and his laptop spread out all the way across it and he was NOT in a good mood. He never was when doing paperwork, but Jared made it worse that morning by asking with a sneer how his night had gone and who he’d been with. Emily seriously thought Dad was going to lose it. His fists clenched until she was afraid he was going to use them.

  He looked at Jared like his gaze could stab right through him. “You little snot, I’m your father. You will not question me.”

  Jared faced off with him, his own fists clenched. “Mom’s gone. I think you owe us more than that.”

  Dad’s eyes blazed. Emily willed Jared to shut up.

  “I don’t owe you a thing,” Dad said. “If anything, you owe me for supporting you all these years, for coming to get you at the police station and not beating your ass for what you did.”

  Emily gasped, at the curse and the threat.

  “I’ll tell you what,” he went on, “the next time the police take you in, they can keep you. How would that be?”

  Jared’s eyes burned just as bright. “You make good on that threat, and I’ll tell them—”

  He stopped himself, fear suddenly chasing the anger off his face.

  “Tell them what?” his father asked. His voice was low and deadly calm.

  Jared didn’t answer that. He turned on his heel, went to his room, and closed the door too hard but just short of slamming. He hadn’t come out since. That was hours ago.

  But the call—

  When the phone rang, Dad snapped, “I’ll get it,” even though Emily was closer.

  She didn’t argue. She hadn’t dared say a word to him since his fight with Jared. She could practically feel him fuming, as if he was a furnace turned up too high and she was in the blast radius.

  He grabbed their landline off the wall, and she stayed right where she was, the better to hear. She didn’t even shift in her seat. She barely breathed to keep from making any noise and being ordered away.

  But she still couldn’t hear anything but his side of the conversation.

  “Yes.”

  Pause.

  “You did? Where?”

  “Uh huh. Do you need me to come down there?”

  “Oh, I see. Thank you, officer.”

  Dad hung up, and stayed for a moment staring at the phone. When he turned, Emily was watching him. She thought she’d heard Jared come out of his room as well, but she couldn’t pull her gaze away from Dad to look.

  Emily wanted to ask about the call, but after Dad’s reaction to Jared’s questioning …

  “They found your mother’s car,” he said, looking Emily in the eyes. “At the Poughkeepsie train station.”

  “And?” Jared asked from the hallway. No confrontation in his voice now. Just stress and worry.

  “That’s it. Just the car. Makes sense that if she was at the train station she probably took a train.”

  Emily let out a breath, for a second so relieved she felt almost boneless, like she could melt off the stool. “That’s good, right? Now that they know, they can trace where she bought a ticket to, track her down.”

  She was watching Jared now though, and his face didn’t light up like hers. Why wasn’t he relieved? Didn’t he want to find Mom as badly as she did?

  When he didn’t say anything, she looked back to Dad. There was no happiness there either, and she started to get a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  “Em,” Dad said, very gently, like he was about to tell her something horrible. “If they find out where she went, they’re not going to hunt her down. They’ll know she left on her own, and that’s her choice. They won’t bring her back.”

  He approached to hug her, and she slid off the stool and backed away instead. He wasn’t going to hug her and make it all right. Nothing was all right.

  “But if they could just talk to her or make her talk to us …” she said.

  “Em, they’re not going to do that. I think you have to accept that she’s gone.”

  “No!” she yelled, startling even herself. “No, I will not accept that. Mom’s gone and you don’t even care!”

  Now she was the one who ran to her room. And slammed the door. And locked it. She even considered putting her desk chair under the knob, since the door only had one of those simple screwdriver locks, but she didn’t really think Dad would come after her. She threw herself down on her bed and grabbed the meerkat stuffed animal they’d gotten at the zoo last year when they all went as a family, and she hugged it to her like it was Mom.

  It didn’t hug back.

  But a darker pressure started to build. She needed to do something about this pain. She was the only one who could.

  Jared stayed behind in the hallway, staring at his father.

  “What?” Dad challenged, bristling all over.

  “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I just … want this to be over.” I want everything to go back to the way it was. But that wasn’t going to happen.

  “They want us to come in later,” Dad said. “I think they want me to walk them through whatever they find in the car.”

  “You said ‘us.’ They want us to come in?”

  “Me. But I’m not leaving you home alone.”

  “Dad, I’m almost sixteen.”

  “And not mature enough to keep from making stupid decisions like breaking into your mother’s place.”

  Jared growled his frustration. “What would you have done if it was Gran missing?”

  “Not that. Speaking of Gran, I’d better go wake her. She had a bad night with her leg spasms, but she’ll want to know what’s going on. Maybe she won’t mind staying a bit longer to keep watch on things.”

  Things. Meaning me. Jared steamed. He didn’t say another word. Any of the ones crowding his mouth and mind would get him into more trouble.

  He moved silently and glaringly out of the hallway to let his Dad pass and considered his next move. He thought about going to Emily, but there was nothing he could say to comfort her. He had no computer access, so he couldn’t try to find his mother’s credit card companies and passwords and statements, look up train tickets … Anyway, the police would be doing all that the legal way, using subpoenas or whatever. They’d be looking at video from the train station and surroundings. He wondered if they’d share what they found with the family.

  In the absence of anything useful, all he could think was that Aaliyah would want to know. Maybe it was self-serving. Maybe he just wanted an excuse to see her, but it was all he could think to do. If he stayed in his room or in this house any longer, he’d go insane. He’d never risk sneaking out if Dad was home, but once he went out and Gran was settled with her shows …

  She’d make the perfect alibi.

  The wait nearly killed him. Dad got Gran up. Offered to scramble her some eggs, though she refused, saying he needed to get going and Jared could take care of her. Dad tried to talk to Emily, but she wouldn’t open her door and he wouldn’t yell through it. Then, finally, Dad was gone, and Jared was left to make his grandmother scrambled eggs and toast, remembering when she used to chase them all out of the kitchen, insisting that she had it. She’d make them eggs-in-the-nest—well-buttered bread with the cent
ers cut out, toasted in the frying pan with eggs cracked in the centers. Occasionally, she’d take potshots at Mom for her “fancy food,” like the eggs Benedict or crème brulée French toast that she’d try out on them. Jared never really understood it. Even Mom’s oopses were pretty awesome. He figured Gran was just jealous that someone else was cooking for her “little boy.” She’d been older when she had Dad and had never gotten over calling him that. Still, it was weird and unfair, and if he was Mom, he’d have said something, but she never did. At least not where he could hear.

  Anyway, Gran thanked him and patted his hand and asked after Emily. He couldn’t just leave her, though the compulsion to get out, to go see Aaliyah, was overwhelming. Instead he sat and talked to Gran about how upset Emily was and how much homework he had and how he’d probably be back in his room all day doing it.

  “Playing video games, more like,” she said with a teasing glint in her eye.

  “Not possible. Dad has all my controllers.”

  “Ah,” she said, shoveling egg onto her toast and not noticing as half of it dropped off again on the way to her mouth. “Well, maybe later you can take a break and take your sister and me out for ice cream or something. Won’t that be nice? Anyway, I have to take a swing by the pharmacy.”

  She took the bite of half-egged bread.

  “Gran, I don’t have my license.”

  She waggled the bread at him, “Excuses. You can drive with another adult in the car, yes? I’ve been an adult for more than three-quarters of my life now. I think I qualify.”

  Jared smiled because he was supposed to, but anxiety churned in his stomach. Now he’d have to get back before she wanted him with no idea when that would be. It would be risky, but he was already grounded and disconnected from everyone and everything. He didn’t see what else Dad could take from him.

  He couldn’t lose his nerve.

  “All right, Gran. We’ll go later. I need to get some work done first, and I don’t think Emily is in any mood to go out.”

  “Let me just take care of these dishes, and—”

  “Not a chance. I’ve got these. You’ve got your shows?”

  “Such a sweet boy,” she said. Ah, there it was. “Would you grab me my cane? Your father hustled me out so fast, I forgot it in my room.”

  Jared went for the cane and came back to find his grandmother trying to stand even without it. She could probably have made it, but he rushed to her side anyway. He handed her the cane and took her other arm in his, escorting her to the living room and settling her into her favorite spot. He even made sure she had a blanket for her feet, and a cup of water and the remote within easy reach before he retreated to his room, chased by the volume blast from the TV.

  He closed his door and locked it and immediately went out the window, thankful his father hadn’t yet thought to nail it shut, and that their house was a one-story ranch-style, so he didn’t have to drop from an upper floor. He slid the window closed behind him—not as easy from this side—and quickly looked around. He couldn’t see the street from around the side of the house, not from behind the blind his father had built to hide the garbage cans, which meant no one could see him either. Perfect.

  But he had to come out from behind the blind sometime. He felt pretty stupid peeking around it, realizing as he did that it was way more suspicious than just walking across his own yard. Luckily, there was no one to see. As soon as he hit the sidewalk, he started a fast walk, like he was out for one of his runs, even though he wasn’t really dressed for it. Far sooner than he would have normally, he started to run. People were used to seeing him race through the neighborhood, and if they couldn’t catch him, they couldn’t stop him for a chat. His mother’s disappearance was big news. Everyone seemed to want to give their gossip the personal touch with direct contact.

  Even running, it took him almost half an hour to get to Aaliyah’s neighborhood. It would be even longer on the way back, since he’d be tired and less motivated. He didn’t have a lot of time to waste. As soon as he got to Aaliyah’s block, he cut through a back yard, hoping it wouldn’t be like at Mom’s complex and that no one would call the police. He couldn’t afford for Mr. or Ms. Persad to catch him. He fervently hoped neither was out gardening or mowing or grilling … well, it was a little early still for that.

  He managed to get to Aaliyah’s window around the side of the house without being seen. Thankfully, her yard wasn’t fenced off, though the same couldn’t be said for her neighbor’s place with the backyard boundary made up of really aggressive rose bushes. He’d found a slight space between two of them, but squeezing through had left his forearms bleeding where his shirt was pushed up. He’d never understood the appeal of the vampire flowers.

  Now that he was here, her window in sight, his nerves kicked into overdrive. What if Aaliyah didn’t want to see him? What if he was caught and got her into even more trouble? What if her parents called the cops? Technically, he supposed, he was trespassing, since he certainly hadn’t been invited.

  No guts, no glory.

  He stepped up to the window after making sure that the coast was clear and rapped on it with his knuckles.

  At first, nothing. Then, “Did you hear something?”

  Crap, someone was inside with Aaliyah. She couldn’t have moved on so quickly, could she?

  His heart squeezed. He was torn between staying and going, but his body made the decision for him. He was frozen. He couldn’t move if he wanted to. He’d come to see Aaliyah. Now he also had to know who she was with. Did that make him a creepy stalker boy?

  “I’ll check,” said a second voice, and Jared let out his breath in a gush. A girl’s voice. Maybell.

  Sure enough, Aaliyah’s curtain was yanked aside, and Maybell’s pale face and hot pink hair appeared in the window. She drew back, startled to see someone right on the other side of the window. Then she looked back over her shoulder. Jared couldn’t hear what she said next, since it was in a hush, but it wasn’t exactly a mystery.

  There was a pause that seemed an eternity, and then Aaliyah appeared, pushing Maybell out of the way and raising the window.

  Jared’s heart actually leapt.

  “Aaliyah,” he said. “I—”

  His words dried up at the angry look she was giving him. “Jared,” she hissed, cutting him off. “You can’t be here. If my parents find you …” She didn’t say what would happen, but he had an imagination.

  Maybell nudged her so that they could both see out the window. “Congratulations, stud,” she said with a smirk, “I’m no longer the bad influence.”

  Aaliyah gave Maybell a quelling look, but it had no effect on her.

  “I’m sorry. I just hadn’t heard anything and … They found my mother’s car. I thought you’d want to know.”

  Immediately, Aaliyah’s look changed to one of heartbreak. “They found her?” she gasped.

  Ouch.

  “No, not her. Just the car. At the Poughkeepsie train station.”

  She leaned out a little farther. “So that’s good, right. It means she’s okay?”

  “Maybe. Dad’s at the station now. They have questions for him.”

  “Ah, that explains what you’re doing here.”

  “What I’m doing here—Aaliyah, I had to see you. I know you don’t want to talk to me, but … I have to know you don’t hate me. And you have to know that I’m sorry.”

  “Maybell told me.”

  His heart sank. He’d told himself that the reason he hadn’t heard from her was that Maybell hadn’t given her his message. “But you didn’t write.”

  Were those tears in her eyes? “I didn’t know what to say. I thought a clean break would be best.”

  “So, this is it then?” Damn, his voice broke. With Maybell as a witness. He snuck her a quick glance, but she wasn’t sneering for once.

  “What else can it be? My parents are never going to let me see you again.”

  “I thought … I don’t know. Maybe they’ll get over it?�
�

  Aaliyah and Maybell shared a look that Jared felt like a shot to the heart. He was on the outside in more ways than one.

  “I don’t think so,” she said quietly.

  “Maybe you’ll defy them?”

  “Jared, I have to go. You have to get out of here before you’re caught. It would be bad for everybody.”

  He looked at Maybell. “But she can stay?”

  “Dude, I didn’t almost get her arrested.” She held up her hands, “Look, ma, no handcuffs.”

  Aaliyah hit her friend, knocking her hands down. “I really am sorry,” she said to Jared, looking him straight in the eyes for what he was afraid might be the last time. “I don’t hate you,” she said more quietly.

  Then she closed the window and let the curtains fall in front of it, shutting him out.

  Despite his worry about time, Jared didn’t run or jog home. He couldn’t. It was all he could do to keep one foot moving in front of the other. He watched them as he went, only glancing up from time to time to look for obstacles or street signs.

  His heart was broken. It no longer mattered if Dad caught him or if Gran ratted him out or … anything.

  Nothing mattered.

  But as he turned onto his street and his heart dropped like a stone, he realized he was lying to himself. That police car in their driveway again. That mattered.

  Eighteen

  Saturday

  Jared

  Ohcrap, ohcrap, ohcrap! Had Gran discovered him gone? Had she called the police to report it, thinking he was a runaway? Had the police changed their minds and come to arrest him?

  Or … had they found Mom? Not her car this time, but her.