Motorcycle Girl: Book Three

Chapter 3: Glass

An hour later I was pacing the bedroom.

I told her I would come after her in twenty minutes if she didn't call but she left her phone at home. I hear the house phone ringing downstairs and I sprint down the steps to the kitchen, ripping it off the hook.

"Hello?" I whisper, cursing whoever would call at this hour.

They could have woken my children.

"Are you guys home?"

It's Adelaide.

"Why?"

"Josh and I are watching the news and apparently there's a bad motorcycle accident on the corner of East Dublin and...what was is Josh?" I hear him reply but I can't make out the words. "Maple Canyon." Adelaide says.

"They said the driver was female with brown hair and was in a leather jacket and rushed to the hospital. Is Odeletta home, Nathan?"

Oh my god.

East Dublin and Maple Canyon is the corner that the Walgreens is on.

"Nathan?" Josh cuts in. "Is Odeletta home?"

"No." I whisper. "She was going to Walgreens."

Silence.

"B-but there's a Walgreens on that corner..." Adelaide trails off. "Oh my god."

"She left her phone at home." I press my hand onto my forehead. "Oh god, no. Fuck. Fuck!"

"Nathan, why the hell was she going out this late?" Josh demands.

"The condom broke!" I say. "And she insisted on getting the pill tonight. I tried to get her to let me go but she wanted to go herself. Oh my god, oh god, what-no, oh fuck!" I slide down the wall, my hands shaking.

"Nathan, where is your cell phone?" Josh asks calmly. "You are her emergency contact. When they I.D. her, they will call you."

I feel like I'm going to throw up.

"It's upstairs." I say. "If something happened to her it's my fault. A girl with brown hair and in a leather jacket. She was in her leather jacket. That's like a one percent chance it wasn't her!"

"Nathan, take a deep breath and go get your phone." Adelaide says.

I force myself to my feet, going upstairs again. I get my phone.

"I don't have any calls." I whisper, walking back downstairs. I go into the living room and flick the light on, sinking onto my couch. "What if something happened to her? What if she-"

'There are plenty of Walgreens' in Columbus." Adelaide says. "I am sure she's fine."

"The only Walgreens in the city that's open at this hour is the one on Dublin!"

They're quiet.

"What do I do? Do I call the police?"

"No." Josh says. "No, she's out there somewhere. She could be in the driveway."

I force myself to my feet and shut off the light in the living room. I walk into the study and through the pocket door, up the stairs to the sitting room. I pull on a pair of sweatpants and drop down on the couch in there.

And then I hear the sound of crying. I'm talking crying like they're being killed crying.

"Shit."

I get up with the phone.

"What happened?" Adelaide asks.

I rush down the hall, and Noemie's room is silent. I push into Raylen's room and he's sitting on the rug next to his bed. His head back and he is screaming. The lamp is shattered on the floor.