“A lot has changed since you left us, Daddy. We haven’t been as close as we were. Every time I asked her something specific about her Internet friend and warned her that she was playing with fire, she told me it was her business, not mine.”
“That seems so unlike her.”
“You weren’t here ninety percent of the time. You didn’t see how she changed. Having something of her own, even this, was more important to Kaylee than it was to me, Daddy. And we both knew how Mother would react if she found out what she was doing.”
“Why didn’t you ever think to call me?”
I sat back and grinned in what I knew to be my condescending way. “That’s almost a joke, Daddy. If I had ever gone to you instead of to her, we would have suffered ten times as severely, and whatever we had holding us together as a family after you had left would have shattered as easily as . . . as the bone china dinnerware you bought for one of your anniversaries.”
“I didn’t actually leave you,” he muttered.
I tilted my head and held my smile.
He nodded and returned to his food. “Well, just keep raking your memory,” he said. “Like the detectives said, the smallest, most insignificant detail to you could be important to them.”
The phone rang again, and again it was one of Mother’s friends.
“I can’t imagine her answering one of these calls,” he said after he hung up. “When I’m not around . . .”
“I’ll just let it go to voice mail,” I said. “I can’t talk to people about
it, either. I shut off my cell phone. If I start to answer their questions, I’ll just cry and cry.”
“Okay, but we don’t want to miss the police should they come up with a question for you or for me. And of course, your grandmothers will call, as well as my brothers, I’m sure.”
“Whenever I can, I’ll look at the caller ID first,” I said, “but I hate to have to tell our relatives anything. They’ll only bring me tears.”
“There’s no way to make this easier, Haylee. The two of us have to stay as strong as we can now. And most of all, we should keep positive. Kaylee will be coming home.”
“Of course she will,” I said. Did I sound positive enough for him?
“You always think of things like this happening to other people. If anyone had ever told me that someday one of you . . .”
We both looked up when Mother entered, carrying her tray. Neither of us had heard her coming down the stairs. She was walking like a zombie. Her hair wasn’t brushed, and she wore no makeup, but what amazed me more was that she was wearing the same dress she had worn to go out with Simon Adams. She was even wearing the same shoes. She would never wear the same clothes she had worn a day or two before, often not even a week before.
“Keri, you didn’t eat enough,” Daddy told her when he saw her tray.
She looked at him as if she had forgotten he was here. When she saw me, she turned angry. I took a deep breath. Here we go again, I thought. Why didn’t I tell her what Kaylee was doing? But she surprised me.
“Why did you come down to breakfast without your sister?” she asked. “You’re always supposed to wake each other. You’re each other’s alarm clock.”
As insane as it sounded, believe it or not, that brought relief. I guessed Daddy was right about her mental state. Maybe she was still in a state of shock. Maybe she would never get out of it. How will this end? I wondered. Will I end up living with Daddy?
There was no doubt which of them was easier to get around.
I turned to him. I didn’t want to say anything wrong and make matters worse.
He stood quickly and gently took the tray from her. “You should rest, Keri,” he said. “You’ve been on heavy medication. Kaylee is still not here,” he added softly.
Her lips began to tremble, and then her shoulders shook as if she was crying inside and unable to shed a tear.
“Haylee!” he shouted, and I jumped up to take the tray from him so he could embrace Mother and keep her from sinking to the floor. He practically lifted her to guide her out of the kitchen and into the living room. I heard her tell him she didn’t want to go back to bed.
“Just lie on the sofa, then,” he said. “I’ll get you a pillow and a blanket.”
I dumped the cold eggs and the piece of toast into the garbage. Then I washed off her dish and coffee cup. She hadn’t touched her juice. I shrugged and drank it. I heard Daddy go up to get her the pillow and blanket, and then I finished my own eggs and gobbled down my toast and jam. The phone rang again. I imagined Daddy had answered upstairs, because it rang only once. There was no doubt that as the day went on, more of Mother’s friends would start to call, as well as Daddy’s. They might start coming to the house, too. If they did, they’d find me still in my pajamas no matter what time of day they arrived. They would see that I wasn’t thinking of anything or anyone else but Kaylee.
Actually, that really was what I was doing. I couldn’t help wondering exactly what had happened and how. It was intriguing, like watching a soap opera or something. What would happen tomorrow and the day after that? Would he ever realize she wasn’t me? I was sure she was denying it like crazy. More important, would he care? To him, the girl he had was the girl he had seen.