K. C. A

TWENTY-TWO

My fathers words hit me like a blacksmith would hit a piece of metal with a hammer. 

The words echoed in my head… Missing?! Kim was missing?! My sister was missing?!! 

Normally, considering my relationship with Kim, I would have been glad if I didn't get to see her face for a couple of days, months even, but this was different. I couldn't shake the idea that she might be in serious trouble out of my mind. 

“Are you okay?” My Dad asked. 

I stared at him for a moment. “Of course not!!” I yelled. “How could I possibly be okay when you just told me that my sister is missing?!!” My Dad reached out to touch my shoulder, I flinched. “Why exactly are we here?! Have you called the police?! Why are there no investigators in this room?!!”

“You need to calm down Jason.”

“I will not calm down!! My sister is missing and nobody thought it wise to call the police!!”

“The kidnappers strictly warned us not to involve the police.”

“Kidnappers?!!” I turned to Alex with even wider eyes expecting him to say something, but he was too busy scratching his right wrist to even notice. “I thought you said she was missing.”

“Missing, kidnapped, aren't they similar?”

“No they are not.” I replied calmly, and sank into the seat closest to me. I was done shouting. “I really hope she is okay.” I sighed. 

“She is.” My dad reassured me. 

“How much is the ransom?”

“They have not made their request yet.”

I ran my fingers through my hair, all I could think about was the worst; what if she dies… 

We all spent the night in the living room, waiting impatiently for a call that never came. My father and Tyler continued to struggle to persuade my Mum, Alex and I to go to sleep until around two am when they had to accept the obvious fact that none of us were going to step out of that living room for any reason whatsoever. 

“Jason.” my Dad called. “Wake up your friend, he needs to freshen up for school.”

I glanced at the clock that hung on the wall above the television, it was a few minutes past six am. “I don't think he would be interested in going to school since I'm staying home.” I replied.

“And why do you think you are staying home from school?”

“I can't be in school while Kim is missing.”

“Yes you can and you will. Wake your friend up.”

“But Dad I…”

My Dad cut me off with a hand gesture signalling ‘stop’. “We are not going to debate on this please. I have a lot on my mind and I just got your mother to sleep.”

I glanced at my mother whose head lay on my fathers laps, the streaks of tears on her face still very evident. Her sorrow was almost tangible even in her sleep.  

“Wake up your friend.” The finality in my father's voice was explicit.

I dragged myself to where Tyler laid, sound asleep, and tapped him on his shoulder “Bro, wake up, we have school.”

As Tyler and I prepared for school, I kept having hope that my dad would change his mind and let us stay home, but that never happened. Instead, my dad put Tyler and I in a taxi that drove us to school, with Alex as our escort.