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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." |
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