Tuesday, August 22, 2017

totally in the dark

totally in the dark




"What?" Charlie thought her heart might falter when she heard the news from school. Lily was missing. She could hardly hear the school secretary's words. This couldn't be. Not Lily.

Charlie was on her way to lunch after her last class of the day at the nursing school. She'd just started back from having a week off. Of course, it hadn't been a vacation, by any means. She was busy getting the house in order. Going through winter clothes that Lily had out grown and looking for sales of what Lily would need to start the year.

She'd gotten Barry to clean out the garage, and they'd had a fairly decent garage sale over the weekend. Of course, this meant baking brownies and cupcakes to draw the crowd in.

Just when she'd been totally satisfied with a productive week, Lily went missing.

She rang Lily's cell immediately. Her heart was pumping as she listened to one ominous ring after another. Her face was in a sweat. Unsure what to do next. She punched in Lily's father on direct dial.

"Huh." He wasn't even at work due to the Solar Eclipse event. He figured she would be at home. "You had classes?"

"Lily isn't at school!" Charlie yelled into the phone.

"I'm sure she's OK." He said she was out looking at the eclipse.

Charlie sighed, not finding any of his humor in the situation. Lily had never done anything like this. She was a good student. She loved school.

"It'll be OK." Draco promised. "I'll look into it, and as soon as I find out something, I'll let you know."

But his comfort of words didn't set Charlie at ease. It wasn't easy being a mother. She was worried. There was so much anger in the world, these days. It was hard to put her trust in anything. Even now, the school had let her down.

All she wanted was for Lily to know how to take care of herself. She guessed this was the only way to find out.

Still, her chest ached at the thought that something bad had happened to her daughter during the Solar Eclipse.

1 comment: