Lauren held back a direct response, knowing how let down and despairing Grace had become over Christian’s failure to come home to her. Deciding to persevere into the evening hours, he’d vehemently refused to break off searching for the day and pick up again the following morning. Members of his team had grudgingly departed the wilderness and travelled back to the valley without him to convey the news. He’d been a no-show at first light at their preselected rally point, and there’d been no signs of him since.
“I don’t know why I’ve been so reluctant,” Lauren said finally, reflecting on herself. “When I was away, all those children we rescued mattered so much to me, and they were barely more than strangers. The ones around here are practically family. I should’ve been involved from the beginning.” She paused. “I don’t know, I haven’t been or felt like myself. Ever since Dad’s been home, it’s like this whole new dynamic has taken shape around here.” She rolled her eyes and blew a puff of air into her bangs. “Then there’s this single life that’s still alien to me…and the fact our home has been converted into a halfway house.”
Grace grunted. Elbows on the table, she dropped her fork and leaned her head on her fist. “Maybe I should dig up some wood and some paint and make a sign for it. That ought to provide at least a two-hour stay of execution from agonizing myself into an inauspicious demise.”
Lauren sent a thoughtful glance. “Grace, I’m sure it’s nothing. You know Christian, ever since learning you were pregnant, he’s become ‘mister conscientious’. He’s just going the extra mile to look for them. Maybe he got sidetracked…or lost—”
“He didn’t get lost,” Grace spat. “I do know Christian. He isn’t stupid or dimwitted…like I am. I would get lost. For fuck’s sake, I can’t find my way around our backyard sometimes. I don’t even know which direction north or south is. I wasn’t born with a sense of direction worth a damn. Christian is smart about things, almost everything I’m not. And he grew up not far from here, so he knows these mountains, probably just as well as you do. There’s no way he got lost. It had to have been something else…or someone else.”
“I’m sorry,” said Lauren. “I wasn’t trying to make you more upset. I wish there was something I could do or say to make this better.”
“I don’t want better. I just want Christian!” Grace sighed, slumping in her chair. “The love of my life is missing. I’m carrying his child, and I can feel that life inside me as clearly as this…awful feeling I’m getting. I know something bad happened to him.” She sighed. “Remember when he went up Mill Mountain by himself the day after you and I got back? I told him I didn’t want him to go, and he did anyway despite me? Remember how mad I was?”
“I remember.”
“Well, I’m ten times madder now,” voiced Grace, “hopping mad. Mad as a…hatter, whatever that even means. But I wasn’t mad at all when he asked me this time. You should’ve seen him. It was clear how badly he yearned to go, but he didn’t just leave, he came to me for permission. I guarantee if I would’ve told him no, he wouldn’t have left.” Her sulk deepened. “I should’ve just told him no. I hate this. I hate that he’s not here. I can’t lose him, Lauren…I just can’t.”
“You won’t. We’ll find him, okay?” Lauren reassured her. “And we’ll find those girls. We’ll bring them all back, and everything is going to return to normal around here soon enough, I promise you. But you need to find a way to keep your spirits up. You’re having a baby soon, and he’s feeling everything you’re feeling.”
“He?”
“Yeah,” Lauren said, looking shamefaced now. “I recognize the chance is fifty-fifty, and I won’t be ungrateful either way, but still, I’m hoping for a boy.”
“That’s off the wall, me too. But why are you hoping for a boy?”
“Because there’s already too many damned troubled women in this household,” she joked. “We need more males to counteract the hormonal imbalance.”
Grace giggled briefly through her frown. “Isn’t that the truth.” She paused a moment, attempting to estimate the time. “Do you know when you’re leaving?”
“Shortly,” said Lauren, sighing. “I have to stop by the shed and see Neo. He has some radio gear for us. After that, I’ll be off.”
“Well, you’d better come back,” Grace hissed. “Who’s going with you?”
“Jae, my steadfast bodyguard, insisted that I join his team, so there’s that,” Lauren mused. “Fred’s entrusted Megan with him, and Lee follows Meg around like a lost puppy, so I’m sure he’s coming. And I think both Jean and Francis are joining.”
“What about Dad?”
“I think he was intent upon leading a team himself until Mom talked him out of it.”
“Mrs. heavy-handed herself.” Grace slowly got to her feet and leaned over to give Lauren a hug, halting at feeling mild discomfort. She reached for her lower back. “Ouch, ouch, ouch. Damn…help me out a little bit.”
Lauren helped Grace fully extend, then walked her to the couch and aided getting her settled there amidst a sea of pillows.
Smiling, though not jovially, Grace went to lie down, only to perk up at the last second. “Shh!”
“What?”
“There it is again.”
“There what is again?” Lauren whispered, looking confused.
“That…noise. The one I’ve been telling everyone about. The one no one else seems to hear but me.”
“What does it sound like?”
“Kind of like buzzing.” Grace imitated the noise as best she could. “Like that. Low-pitched buzzing, kind of like a bee, but a big freakin’ bee. It’s hard to explain.”
“And even harder to mimic,” Lauren jeered.
Grace cupped her ear with her hand. “Shit. It’s gone already. What the hell?”
“Maybe it’s your prenatal mind playing tricks on you.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I
