The Right One

Twenty

Raymond slumped against the driver seat of his car, exhausted. He craned his neck, groaning when it seemed like every bone in his body were screaming in protest from the hunched position they'd been in all day while he'd been buried in work.

Recalling he'd muted his phone at some point, he searched aimlessly in his suit jacket for it, hoping he'd not missed anything or anyone important.

A slight frown marred his face when he saw he indeed had three missed calls and all were from Oke from about two hours ago. Slightly worried, he dialed the boy's number and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as the phone rang.

"Hello sir," Oke greeted, picking up on the second ring.

"Oke. How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you sir," the boy replied in the polite manner Raymond had grown accustomed to.

"Good. I saw just now that you'd called, is everything alright?" He asked, cutting to the chase.

"Yes. I mean, not really. It's Hope."

Raymond sat straighter as his energy seemed to have been miraculously restored. "What about her?"

"What happened was, she got a call today sometime around noon and I don't know, it seemed really serious. She didn't seem herself the rest of the afternoon and . . . I don't know. It was just really alarming and I thought you'd want to know," the boy ended on a sigh.

Raymond jaw worked furiously as the worry reappeared, gnawing at his insides. "Thank you, Oke. I'm glad you told me."

"Alright, sir." Oke paused hesitantly before adding, "Please, make sure she's fine?"

Raymond nodded although the boy couldn't see him. "I will."

"Bye sir."

"Bye," Raymond replied as he ended the call. Immediately, he dialed Hope's number but it was switched off. He felt panic rising but managed to shut it down. There was no point worrying yet, there could be a million and one explanations as to why her phone was off.

Nodding at the logic of his thoughts, he decided to drive over to her house instead, dialing her number as he drove.

Getting to her house, his knock was a bit frantic as he waited for someone to answer. He tried the knob but the door seemed locked. What was going on?

"Raymond?"

Raymond turned around sharply to the sight of Val standing behind him. She seemed to have just gotten back from work as well and Raymond was a bit surprised he'd been so distracted he hadn't heard her walk over to him.

"Val, hi. Is Hope home?" He asked impatiently.

Val seemed taken aback by the urgency in his tone. Confusedly, she replied, "Uh . . . I don't know. I just got back as well."

She walked forward and Raymond shifted so she could try the door. She saw it was locked and brought out her key. She unlocked the door and turned to Raymond. "She's not home. We don't lock the door with a key from the inside."

Raymond had suspected that, but he'd still been hoping that wasn't the case. "Do you have any idea where she might be?"

Val shook her head, thoughtful. "I don't know. She might be running late with tutorials or maybe gone out with her friends. Have you tried calling her?"

"Her phone's switched off," Raymond replied, frustrated. "Do you maybe have any of her friends' numbers?"

Val shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't."