Vanish

by Karen Spafford-Fitz

  “No, with me,” Yvette says.

  “You guys all hide,” I say. “I’ll find you instead.”

  As I count to twenty, I wonder again about Lily. Where is she? And why can’t Rachel afford a birthday gift? She can afford dozens of pink outfits for Lily.

  I try to focus and do a good job. But thoughts of Lily keep creeping back in. As Mimi giggles from behind the television, I remember Lily telling me that she doesn’t have a television anymore. The week before that, she said her computer was gone.

  “They weren’t even broken,” Lily had said. “But Mommy didn’t answer me when I asked about them.”

  Once again, I realize that I am not doing my job.

  “Come on.” Mimi tucks her hand into mine. “I can help you find the others.”

  We head into the laundry room. I see someone wiggling underneath a bath towel in the laundry hamper.

  “I see you!” Mimi pulls the towel off of Hannah. The two little girls squeal with laughter.

  Some boxes rustle at the far end of the laundry room. I stand back as Mimi and Hannah rush in and find Chloe and Justine.

  The little girls lead me upstairs to Chloe’s purple bedroom. I stand in the middle while they check under the bed. I try to pay attention to the game. But still, Hannah has to remind me that we’ve found everyone.

  “Yippee! Time for presents!” Chloe calls out as we storm down the stairs behind her. “Presents next, right, Mommy?”

  Chloe is soon ripping into her gifts. The mound of stuffed puppies and ponies, packages of markers, lip-gloss sets and books is growing at her feet.

  Chloe’s mom motions to get my attention. “Simone, can you pour the juice?”

  “Sure.” I step into the kitchen.

  One of the moms is pouring a cup of coffee by the table. She turns and smiles. “Hi. I’m Tara, Justine’s mom. You must be Simone. I have heard so much about you.”

  “P-pardon?” It feels like her words just grabbed me by the throat.

  “I said I’m Tara. And that I have heard so much about you.”

  I have heard so much about you.

  That was it!

  Tara is staring at me. I force myself to keep pouring the juice even though my hands are shaking.

  I have heard so much about you.

  What is it about those words? When did I last hear them?

  I am passing plates of cake around when it hits me. Blake said those same words at Curriculum Night. But that makes no sense. Absolutely none.

  Rachel said that Blake had had no contact with Lily since last July. But at Curriculum Night, he knew my name, and he knew about the ballerina–vet picture. He also knew about our matching green necklaces. How could that be if Lily hadn’t talked to her dad for three months?

  My stomach bottoms out on me. It feels like something is terribly wrong with Lily. I need to go check on her.

  As I am bolting for the kitchen door, I realize I’m holding a plate with birthday cake. I pause long enough to set it on the counter.

  “Are you okay?” Chloe’s mom says.

  I mutter something about not feeling well. Then I brush past the moms and sprint for home. Minutes later, I fly through our front door.

  “Mom! Mom!”

  There’s no answer. Then I see the note on the counter.

  Got called to work. Not sure when I’ll be home. Mom xo

  My heart sinks. All I know is I have to see Lily.

  The bike. I’ll bike over. I race to the garage and grab it. As I push it outside, I notice that the tires are completely flat. I drop the bike onto its side and race back into the house.

  I pace around the kitchen, trying to figure out what to do. If something is up at Lily’s house, I’d better have someone there with me. But I don’t have a single friend to call.

  Then an idea hits me. I can’t think about it for long, or I’ll chicken out. I grab the phone and dial.

  I can barely hear Aaron’s voice over the sound of little boys asking, “Is this one of your girlfriends again?”

  I don’t have time to blush. “Aaron, it’s Simone. I can’t talk now, but I need you to do something for me.”

  “Simone? What’s up?”

  “I think something’s wrong at Lily’s house.”

  “O-kaay.” Aaron pauses.

  “I know this sounds weird, but we need to go check.”

  “Sure. Um, don’t you live pretty far away though?”

  “Sort of.” I don’t want to think about how long it will take me to run there.

  “Which way will you be coming from?” Aaron asks.

  “Seventy-Sixth Avenue.”

  “Okay. I’ll meet you along Seventy-Sixth.”

  Moments later, I am tearing off down the road.

  Chapter Ten

  I run until a stitch jabs into my side. As I turn onto 76th Avenue, I slow to a walk. My breath is coming in gasps. I don’t see Aaron until he is right in front of me.

  “Here.” He hands me a helmet. “Climb onto the handlebars. I’ll double you the rest of the way.”

  The helmet doesn’t fit well, and getting onto the handlebars is way tougher than it sounds.

  “Ouf!” I land against Aaron’s chest as he starts pedaling. Our heads bang against each other. If we weren’t wearing helmets, we would probably both have concussions.

  Aaron is soon puffing hard. There are two more quick turns before Lily’s house. At the first turn, I nearly slide off. Aaron struggles to keep the bike balanced. As he slows down for the last turn, I jump off and start running.

  Lily’s house is just ahead. I’m about to run up the driveway when Blake appears from around the side of the house. That must be his car parked on the street. I skid to a stop, and Aaron nearly plows into the back of me.

  “Quick!” I motion to Aaron, and we run behind the garden shed next door. We watch Blake through the bushes.

  Blake is so busy peering in the windows and knocking on the door that he doesn’t notice us. He checks his watch, then disappears around the side of the house again. He soon appears at the other side. Neither Aaron nor I move a muscle as he rings the doorbell again and again. Then he stomps back to his car. The whole time, he is muttering to himself.

  We wait until Blake has driven away before we come out from behind the shed.

  “Who was that?” Aaron says.

  “Blake. Lily’s dad.”

  Aaron notices the sourness in my voice. “Oh. So you don’t like him much?”

  I tell Aaron about Blake missing his support payments and not showing up for his visits with Lily.

  “Rachel doesn’t even give out their real address because of him,” I say.

  “Then how did he find out Lily lives here?” Aaron asks.

  I hadn’t thought of that! My breath catches in my throat.

  “I don’t know.” I shake my head. “Somehow he seems to know everything.”

  I fill Aaron in on Curriculum Night and how Blake knew a bunch of stuff about Lily and me that he shouldn’t have known.

  “That’s pretty creepy,” Aaron says. “What do we do now?”

  “I don’t know. Something still doesn’t feel right to me. But now that he’s gone, I guess we should go home.”

  As we walk down the street, I tell Aaron about Lily missing the birthday party. Then a car drives past us, and I jump.

  “Oh, I thought that was Blake coming back,” I say. “You know, I have no idea what that guy is up to, but I don’t trust him one bit.”

  That night, Mom goes to bed right after dinner. She has another early start at work tomorrow. I can tell these wonky hours at the deli are hard on her.

  As usual, this house feels bigger and quieter than what I’m used to. I log on to Facebo
ok. Once again, there are no messages waiting for me. I tell myself that I should stop checking. It is too depressing. I read a few of the posts, but they are just as depressing. Most of them are about band trips and team tryouts that don’t include me.

  I log off the computer and turn on the TV instead. I flip through the channels. A couple with six kids wins a massive dream home. Prizewinning cupcakes are decorated like superheroes. Last but not least, a disgraced cheerleader has to dress up in a chicken costume as the school mascot at the next football game.

  I am about to turn off the TV when a news update comes on. I look at the reporter’s fresh makeup, perfect teeth, stylish hair and tailored suit. I wonder why they all look the same. I shake my head.

  “In local news today,” says the reporter, “a mother and her young daughter are believed to have been abducted from their south Edmonton home. Talia Myers reports live from the scene.”

  The camera moves from the newsroom to outdoors. Yep, more perfect hair and teeth.

  “Earlier today, a neighbor noticed the shattered front window and the open door at this south Edmonton home. He alerted the police, who arrived to find the home ransacked. More upsetting yet—the occupants, a single mother and her five-year-old daughter, are missing.

  “The woman’s ex-husband, who is also the father of the young girl, is currently being questioned by police. The man was seen on the premises earlier today. He is believed to be the prime suspect in this apparent double abduction.”

  The reporter goes on to say the usual stuff. Names being withheld. Whereabouts unknown. Police requesting the public’s assistance.

  The camera pans across the front yard. I can see the whole house. It is surrounded by yellow police tape.

  Something about the house looks familiar. My stomach tightens into a hard knot.

  No, I tell myself. It can’t be!

  The camera swings farther to the right. Now I can see the neighbor’s garden shed.

  Oh no! It’s the same shed Aaron and I hid behind earlier.

  It’s Lily’s house! Lily must be the little girl who was abducted!

  I race to the foot of the stairs. “Mom! Mom!”

  I blurt out how Lily missed the party and about my going over to her house because I thought something was wrong. I finish by telling Mom about the news report.

  Minutes later, Mom and I bolt out the door.

  Chapter Eleven

  The two police officers behind the counter are chatting about last night’s hockey game. I wait for a moment. Then I interrupt them.

  “I was there today,” I say.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I was there today. At that house where the little girl was abducted.” I’m talking way louder than usual, even with both officers looking at me. “I saw the news clip on TV,” I say. “It’s the same house. I know because I was hiding behind the garden shed at the neighbor’s house. I was watching.”

  “Watching what?”

  I’m opening my mouth to tell him when he raises his hand. “Wait a minute.” He points at Mom. “Who is this?”

  “My mom.”

  He nods. “I’d like both of you to step into the back.”

  He leads us down a hallway to a small room. With its wooden table and straight-backed chairs, it looks almost like a study room at the library.

  “Someone will be with you in a moment.”

  The same constable returns with a second officer.

  “I’m Constable Dakin,” she says.

  I can’t help but stare at her. She is smaller than me, and she looks more like a ballet dancer than a police officer.

  I peel my eyes away. I need to focus, but my mind isn’t doing so great at that. So before Constable Dakin asks me anything, I start talking about what happened. I tell her everything I can remember. I start from when Aaron and I arrived at Lily’s house.

  Constable Dakin keeps asking me to tell parts of it over again.

  “You were at Lily’s house with your friend?”

  I pause. I don’t know how to answer that. Is Aaron actually a friend? I’ll have to think about that later.

  “I was there with a guy from school,” I say. “His name is Aaron McGavin. I don’t know his exact address, but I could show you where he lives. I know his cell number too.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Mom’s eyes growing. During the short bus ride to the police station, I had told her about Lily’s family. I didn’t mention anything about Aaron. I’ll probably have some explaining to do when we get home.

  Constable Dakin takes down Aaron’s cell number. Then she asks me to back up to when I first met Lily and her family. I tell her about the Kinderbuddy project. I also tell her about meeting Blake at Curriculum Night.

  “So that’s how I knew it was him at Lily’s house,” I say.

  She asks me what Blake was wearing earlier today. She asks me to describe the car he drove away in too. My heart races as I try to remember the details.

  “Did the house look disturbed in any way?” Constable Dakin asks.

  “No. It just looked like nobody was home.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because Blake knocked on the front door. He rang the doorbell three or four times. Nobody answered. He looked in all the windows too.”

  “So nothing about the house looked amiss?”

  I’m about to ask Constable Dakin what she means when I remember something. The TV reporter mentioned a shattered window and an open door. “The house was fine,” I say. “The windows weren’t broken, and the door was closed.”

  Meanwhile, I’m starting to squirm on my chair. I’ve answered the questions as best I can. But nobody has told me the most important thing of all. I can’t wait any longer.

  “Do you know where Lily is?”

  Constable Dakin gives me a sad look. “At this point, no. We don’t know where Lily or her mother are.”

  My heart slams into the back of the chair. My eyes fill with tears. I wipe them away with my sleeve.

  “But it said on the news that you talked to Blake. He’s not a good dad to Lily. He was mean to Rachel too. And why was he sneaking around their house?”

  Mom puts her hand on my arm. I know she wants me to stop saying these things. But I need to say them. The police need to know.

  “We’ve been talking to Lily’s father,” Constable Dakin says. “Believe me, Simone, we’re taking this very seriously.

  “You’re right to be upset. But we are going to assume that Lily is all right and that we’ll find her. We’re doing everything we can. And you’ve been very helpful.”

  I clamp my mouth shut. I don’t feel like I was helpful. If it hadn’t taken me until the birthday party to figure out something was going on with Lily’s family, maybe she’d be safe at home right now.

  Chapter Twelve

  That night, the words abducted, whereabouts unknown and ransacked play out in my head. Every time I doze off, I’m thrown into a nightmare. In one, I’m watching Lily get taken from her house. In another, the stack of pictures she has drawn for me is blowing away in a gust of wind. And worst of all, I can hear her saying the words she always wrote at the bottom of the pictures she gave me. Hi Simone. I love you. From Lily.

  It’s late when I finally drop into a deep sleep. I don’t hear my alarm when it goes off. Mom isn’t there to wake me because she’s at work.

  When I finally wake up, it’s after ten o’clock. I scramble to get ready for school. Period two is nearly over when I arrive. Instead of going to the junior-high wing, I circle around to the kindergarten classroom. I pull myself up onto a ledge to peer inside the window.

  The kindergarten students are sitting on the carpet, singing. They are holding little bells and drums. Yuri is whacking his drum a
gainst his head. The little friends from Chloe’s birthday party are sitting together. I zone in on that group especially. But, like I expect, Lily is not there.

  I shift to the left. From here, I see that her cubbyhole by the classroom door is empty. My heart sinks into my sneakers, and I’m shaking all over. I had hoped that this nightmare would be over by morning.

  I’m turning to leave when someone blows a whistle behind me. I nearly jump out of my shoes. I slip off the ledge I’ve been perched on. I skin my knuckles against the bricks on the way down.

  “I don’t even want to know why you’re peeking into that window instead of going to class. Just get there. Now!” The outdoor ed teacher, arms loaded with stopwatches and compasses, glares at me.

  I circle around to the junior-high wing. I can feel the teacher’s eyes burning holes into my back the whole way.

  At the office, the secretary asks why I am late.

  You don’t really want me to answer that.

  “I slept in,” I say.

  She lets out her breath in a loud huff. “That’s hardly an acceptable excuse. But since you’re not a chronic offender…”

  Her voice trails off. She signs a late slip and shoves it across the desk at me.

  I slip into English class quietly. Or rather, I try to.

  “Nice hair,” Tessa laughs. Her hair, of course, is pulled back in a perfect ponytail. A cute hair band holds it in place.

  I try to remember whether I combed my hair this morning or not. I think not. With all the tossing and turning I did last night, it’s probably sticking out everywhere. I reach up and try to smooth it down. The Runway Girls break into peals of laughter.

  When she can finally speak again, Stacy pipes up. “She probably slept in that T-shirt last night too.”

  I glance down at my shirt. It wasn’t one of my better finds at the thrift store. And given how fast I dressed this morning, I think I did sleep in it.

  Mr. Gibson is working with a small group at the other side of the room. He looks up. “Girls, keep it down over there. Simone, the handout is on my desk. Go grab a copy and get to work, please.”