• Chapter Three
    Wednesday, July 8th, 2010. Asher Home.

    I wake up in the morning to the sound of voices. I look at my clock sleepily. Six thirty-seven. In the morning. I groan and start to roll over, then remember what happened yesterday. I listen more closely to the voices, trying to see if I hear Del’s. But it’s my mom and dad. They’re fighting. Again.
    I get up slowly, realizing that I’m still in my regular clothes. Raleigh yawns and pops up from the floor. Tip-toeing across my room, I lean up against my closed door and listen.
    “Well why didn’t you tell me?!” Mom yells.
    “I was sleeping! By the time I realized you’d come in, you were sleeping!” Dad yells back.
    “Oh, so it’s my fault!”
    “Well it’s definitely not mine!”
    “My daughter could’ve been mugged or kidnapped or worse and now you’re blaming me!”
    “Your daughter?! Try our daughter! I never said I wasn’t worried about her!”
    “Well you certainly aren’t acting like you’re worried!”
    “I’m sure she’s just fine Mary! You’re blowing this way out of proportion!”
    Tired of hearing the fight, I quickly open my door and close it behind me and Raleigh, and they both stop to look at me.
    “Oh, Phoenix, honey…” Mom says sweetly, coming to hug me tightly. I hug her back just as tightly.
    “Mom, I’m sorry. I’m sorry…” I mumble softly.
    “Oh, it’s okay sweetheart,” Mom says, looking at me with her sad, brown eyes, “I know you’re worried about Del, but I’m sure everything will be alright. We called the police a few minutes ago and they’ll be here soon. They’re going to look for her, okay? And they’ll find her, don’t you worry.”
    “Okay,” I say, trying to smile. Trying to look okay. But inside I’m falling apart slowly. Without Del I’m not sure what to do next.
    Dad grabs a beer from the fridge and walks into the TV room. I walk slowly back into my room with Raleigh.
    “Don’t drink that in front of the police!” I hear Mom say as she grabs the beer from him and puts it back into the fridge.
    “Hey, I’m not drunk!” he objects, and I quickly close my door. I don’t want to hear it anymore.
    The police arrive a few minutes later. There are three of them, and they introduce themselves as Officers Quinn, Michaels, and Briggs. Raleigh wags his tail as they enter the apartment, but stays by my side. Raleigh is a very good judge of character, and I know who can be trusted and who can’t with him by my side.
    I repeat to officers the entire story of yesterday and last night in full detail. Officer Quinn takes extensive notes as I talk, and Michaels stops me a few times to clarify certain parts. After I finish Briggs asks me a few questions, and I answer them.
    I feel exhausted after telling and retelling the story. The police then turn their attention to Mom and Dad, and I check the time. Eleven twenty-four. I walk into my room and grab my skateboard, then dash over to the door, Raleigh right beside me. I tell Mom I’m going skateboarding and close the door behind me before she can object.
    As I ride down the street I think about what’s going on. I know the whole thing hasn’t completely sunken in yet. It’s hard to comprehend it all. I still don’t know what happened to Del, but suddenly my imagination is taking a turn for the worst. I shake my head slowly, trying to think straight. I consider myself to be an optimist, but at a time like this how can I be?
    As I pass by houses and people, the familiar sights of Manchester, I sigh and wonder where Del is. When I’m with her everything feels safe and normal and fun, but suddenly the world I’ve always known seems dangerous and strange. I push my skateboard faster, trying to escape the monsters in my imagination.
    But still I keep going, determined not to go back to my house. I feel like running away, escaping from everything in my crummy life! With Del gone, my life has no purpose, no joy. I steer suddenly off the sidewalk, flying into a small patch of trees. My skateboard hits a rock and stops suddenly. I fall off my board and crumble to the ground in tears.
    Suddenly angry, I pick up the nearest rock and throw it with all my might. With that I continue crying.
    Let me break this down for you: Whenever I get sick, Del is the one to run to the store to buy medicine for me. When Del falls out of a tree and gets a scrape I’m the one who puts a bandage on it. We take care of each other because no one else does. Without her I feel like half of me is gone… the half that would know what to do.
    A few minutes later I realize that Raleigh is standing next to me. I turn to him and he lifts and paw and cocks his head. I can’t help but smile. I hold my hand out weakly and he immediately comes and licks it.
    Slowly, I heave myself up from the ground, brush off my pants, pick up my board and walk out of the trees with Raleigh still licking my hand. But even with his comfort I know I can’t go on like this.
    But I can’t go home crying to Mom either! Fighting another angry burst, I try to think about my options. My normal reaction would be to head to the library and spend the rest of the day in a corner reading, but it just doesn’t seem right. Finally, I decide to head to the jewelers that Del was at last night. It’s a slim chance, but maybe I’ll find something.
    And with that minute glimmer of hope I press forward, ever optimistic.

    In about fifteen minutes I reach the jewelers. It’s about one o’ clock now, or so says the clock in the jewelers. I’m feeling a little better now after riding my skateboard. It always seems to clear my mind somehow.
    So, I’m here. Slowly, I look around the strip mall and parking lot, not really sure why I came. Starting to feel hopeless again, I plunk myself down on the sidewalk and put my head in my hands as Raleigh sits next to me.
    Woops…
    I shift position as I feel something underneath me and glance quickly at what I sat on. Suddenly I do a double take. No, it can’t be…
    But as I pick up the pen I realize that it is! It’s Del’s pen! It’s a red gel pen, and I had taken another pen to it and drawn a smiley face. The face is faint, but I can still see it.
    So how did this pen get here? Obviously Del must’ve been here and dropped it. Just that thought makes me excited. Maybe it’s a clue, like the trail of breadcrumbs in Hansel and Gretel! I quickly get up and start searching for something else of Del’s. Raleigh follows me and I tell him “Go find Del!” He wags his tail furiously and bounds around the parking lot, sniffing here and there. I follow him and look for clues on the ground.
    But still after a few minutes of searching the surrounding area, all I find is a few receipts and fifteen pennies lying around.
    I sit down on the sidewalk once more and put the change in my bag. Raleigh sighs and lays down next to me. So now what? I still don’t want to go home, still feel like I should be out doing something. But finding the pen has given me new hope. I don’t really know why, but it has. I’ll go with it.
    It’s only about twelve forty, so I decide to keep skateboarding around the area, but not as fast as usual. Maybe Del did leave clues, but maybe they were farther away. It’s not much, but at least it’s giving me something to do.
    So Raleigh and I head out to see what we can find.

    At eight o’ clock that night I slip into the apartment. I’ve spent most of the day looking around for clues with Raleigh, but I didn’t find any ‘bread crumb’ trails. It does seem like a Del sort of thing to do; except she didn’t. After searching for a while I decided to go to the library, and once again I stayed without realizing it until the placed closed. So now, with the sun setting behind me, Raleigh and I walk quickly up the stairs and into the apartment, trying to be as quiet as possible.
    As I let myself in I hear Mom and Dad arguing in the kitchen. Not in the mood to listen to them, I walk into my bedroom and shut the door.
    Slowly, I change into my PJ’s and hop onto bed. Raleigh lays next to me as I fiddle around on my laptop for a while, then fall into a fitful sleep.

    ***

    The next morning I wake up late after a long night. I blink slowly, trying to focus on the clock… ten o’ clock. Eh, I can do better than that!
    I go to roll over when the phone starts to ring. So I wait, just making sure someone gets it. But no one does.
    “Phone,” I say sleepily to Raleigh. But he’s is fast asleep. I sigh heavily and roll out of bed to get the phone from my desk.
    “Hello?” I answer it.
    “Hello? Who is this?” asks the voice on the other line.
    “Uh, Phoenix…?”
    “Phoenix… Philadelphia’s sister?” he asks.
    “Yeah…” I answer. “Uh, not to be rude sir, but… who are you?”
    “Do you know where you’re sister is, Phoenix?” he asks suddenly, ignoring my question. I hesitate, sitting down on my bed slowly. The way he said it didn’t sound like an ‘I want to talk to her where is she’ sort of question. It sounded more like an ‘I know where she is but do you’ sort of question.
    Ignoring my nagging doubts, I say, “Del… went missing last night; I don’t know where she is.”
    The man on the other line pauses, and I shift uneasily on my bed. I don’t like talking to strangers and for some reason this guy is giving me the creeps.
    “Phoenix, would you like to know where your sister is?” the man asks.
    “Yes!” I practically yell. “Do you…know?”
    The man hesitates again, as if I needed more suspense added to this situation.
    “Meet me at the East Side Plaza at seven-thirty tonight. I’ll be in the back parking lot behind the card store in a silver Cadillac. Don’t tell the police or anyone else that you’re coming to see me tonight. It could be catastrophic for Philadelphia and for you.”
    “But… who…?” I start to ask, but he’s already hung up. I take the phone away from my ear and stare at it, as if it’ll provide me with the answers to this puzzle. If Del was here, she’d try to trace the call or something ridiculous like that. She’d want to solve the problem. I’m not really sure what to do.
    I decide to go for a ride on my skateboard with Raleigh. I try to clear my mind, try to escape from all this craziness. But all I can think about is this mysterious man and what he knows about Del’s disappearance.
    I start to wonder if I should tell the police. Or at least tell my parents (not that that would do a lot of good). I feel so torn, but what finally decides it is this: it’s not worth risking Del’s life.
    But is going there worth risking mine?