809c:


I walked back to the bathroom, determined to clean up the mess before it did any more damage to the house. I threw every towel, washcloth, and napkin I could gather into the pool in the middle of the floor. What I needed was a shop-vac. I wondered if any of my neighbors had one that they'd be willing to let me borrow for a couple of hours.

While I cleaned, I started thinking about the different reasons she might have left, and where she might have gone to. It wasn't like her to leave without saying goodbye; at the very least I would have expected her to leave a note for me. I wondered if I had missed the note because I’d been distracted by the overflowing sink. I headed back to the kitchen to check.

Nothing out of the ordinary there. She hadn't left a note. I even got down and looked beneath the refrigerator, in case it had fallen onto the floor and somehow gotten wedged beneath it.

"This is crazy," I said to myself, standing up.

I picked up the phone and called Janine back.

It rang three times before she answered.

"Something told me it would be you again," she said, her voice clearer than the last time we had talked. She must have finished eating that salad.

"Yeah. Um,” I hesitated, then committed. "Why do you think it is that she'd leave like that? It's really bothering me - a lot more than it should, probably. Something doesn't feel right. It's not like her at all to wander off somewhere without at least leaving a note."