She hesitated and gulped back a sob. It felt like yesterday. But it had been nearly fifteen years.
“They didn't come home when they were supposed to. That's how it started. They were supposed to come home Monday night but they never showed up at my grandmother's house. At first, my grandmother thought they went back to our house so that they could spend a little more time together. So I got in the car and drove home. It was my last year of high school and I already had my license. When I got there, the house was dark. No lights were on at all. My grandmother kept calling the house. I could hear the phone ringing while I stood outside. I was afraid to go in the house because it was so dark. I think I was more afraid to find out they really weren’t there and didn’t go to bed like I suspected they might have. Hoped they had. But that was just my mind playing games. They would have called to let us know they were home.”
He stared at her as if he was really listening.
She lifted her hands as if deep in the memory of what had happened that night. “I knock on the door. Can you believe it? I knocked on the door of my own house. But the phone kept ringing, then stopping, and then ringing and I knew it was my grandmother. So I finally went in and answered the phone. The house was empty.
“I should have known right away they weren’t home. The car wasn’t there. But it was if I was in some sort of a trance.”
“What did you do?”
“I went back to my grandmother’s house and then the worrying started. My grandmother weighed whether or not to jump the gun and call the police station or wait until morning. They were only a few hours later then we'd expected them. So we stayed over my grandmother’s house and went to school the next day.”
“After school, I came home like any normal day. Gail had something to do after school so she didn’t come home with me. My dad’s car wasn’t in the driveway, but I just figured he’d gone out for an errand or went to work. Since I’d been driving my mother’s car, I assumed she was home. So I walked into the house like I always did. But it was still empty. There was no message on the answering machine and no note on the kitchen table telling me they’d gone out together. And then I knew.”
“You knew what happened?”
“I didn’t know the details, but I knew it was bad. The fact that they hadn’t even tried to get into contact us was alarming. So my grandmother called the police and we waited. And waited.”
She said the last part with a heavy sigh that made her shoulders sag and fall as if she were falling into the sofa and the sofa was falling through the floor. Her whole body felt heavy and the fear that had coursed through her that day was just as strong as it was remembering it. “I wanted to hang on to the tiniest thread of hope as we waited. But it was awful.”
She looked at the pan on the wood stove and saw that the snow had melted. The water had reduced considerably inside the pot and it was starting to warm.
“What happened to them?”
“Hank Lucas was an officer back then. He’s the chief of police, the man you spoke to earlier, now. Anyway, he and a few other officers headed up to the cabin and searched for them. The car was still parked outside, so they knew my parents had to be around somewhere. I wanted to go, but Hank insisted we stay back at the house and wait. It was the worst feeling. Waiting. I wanted to hang onto hope but I couldn't. I knew that if anybody came, it was going to be with bad news. I can't tell you how I knew, but I did.
“Gail was sitting on the sofa looking out the window when Hank’s cruiser pulled into the driveway. I saw Grover in the backseat of the cruiser, and I knew my parents were gone. My grandmother fell to the floor sobbing uncontrollably. I don't really remember a whole lot of what I did or even what Gail did. I was numb at that point. But apparently Grover had gone off running after something and they think that one of my parents went off after him and ended up on a soft spot on the pond. Either one fell in and the other tried to save them, or they both fell in together. It was hard for them to be sure because the snow had melted quite a bit by the time they'd gotten up there. But they were gone.
“It took a little while, but they eventually found their bodies and pulled them out of the pond. This is the first time I've been up to the cabin for any length of time since then. I usually just drop off whatever is needed and leave. I thought it would feel strange, but it doesn’t.”
“That must’ve been
