Theo scratched the top of his head. “Me neither. Maybe behind the main street?” We walked between two shops and along an endless street. A couple of teens sat on the doorstep of a piercing shop, giggling to themselves. High, no doubt.
“Excuse me,” I snapped, having no patience to wait for them to come down from whatever was hilarious. “Have you seen this girl? Her name’s Summer Robinson. She’s sixteen.”
The girl squinted her bloodshot eyes as she looked at the picture while the boy seemed to take great pleasure in looking Summer over. I clenched my jaw and forced myself to stay calm and not punch his fucking face in. The straggly girl shook her head and gave me a lopsided grin. “Nopes, sorry, dude.” Nopes? She sounded like a thirteen-year-old trying to invent new in words at school.
“Never seen her, but I wish I had,” the guy slurred. I hoped Summer wasn’t around here with low-life scum like him.
“Thanks,” Theo mumbled and pushed me past them.
I had a horrible feeling that we were just wasting time here. Even if someone had seen her, would they say? This seemed like a place where everyone respected everyone else’s wish to disappear. It wasn’t Summer’s wish to disappear. She didn’t want to go.
Theo and I walked around for an hour and a half, asking anyone we stumbled upon to look at the picture. Of course, no one had seen a thing, or so they told us. “I don’t know what to do now.” I admitted. I should have known.
“We keep looking. That’s all we can do.”
“Okay, let’s meet up with the others and try somewhere else.”
I missed her so much it physically hurt, like I was being punched in the gut over and over. All I could do was look, and that hurt even more. I had promised her I would never let anyone hurt her, and I failed her.
Sunday, August 1st (Present)
I woke to the bright sun glaring down on my face. Looking across at Summer’s alarm clock, I gasped and bolted upright. Shit, I overslept! It was almost ten. I threw the cover off and jumped out of bed. Fuck, how could I sleep in so long when Summer was missing? Chucking yesterday’s clothes on, I ran downstairs. Why didn’t anyone wake me?
“Lewis, come sit down for breakfast,” Mum called as I sprinted past the kitchen to grab my backpack. Today I was concentrating my search in the smaller forest near the park.
“No time,” I replied.
“Lewis! Come and get something now,” she snapped.
I sighed and darted into the kitchen. “Just throw something together for me then!”
Dawn sat at the kitchen table staring blankly into a full cup of coffee. The phone sat next to the mug. It hadn’t been more than a few inches away from her since Summer went missing.
Mum handed me a plastic shopping bag full of food. “Thanks,” I mumbled and sprinted out of the house. I had food in the backpack, but I wasn’t planning on eating anything in there. It was full of Summer’s favorites—sports drinks, malt balls, gummy bears, a Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut bar, and gingerbread men.
I stepped outside and was taken aback at the amount of people outside the house. News reporters lined the waist-high brick wall around the house. “Lewis, Lewis,” the crowd shouted all at once. Flashing lights exploded from their cameras.
Ignoring the questions fired at me, I hopped in my car. Just as I turned the key in the ignition, the passenger door opened. “I’m coming with you,” Henry said and buckled his seat belt. I nodded and sped off, telling myself, Today I will find her—but I said that every day.
12
CLOVER
Friday, March 11th (2005)
I parked the van in the darkest corner in the abandoned parking lot and walked toward the department store. I had never felt so alive before. Very soon she was going to be mine and I couldn’t wait to take care of her. My perfect Violet.
It was warm out for March, but even so, the street was deserted. For the past two nights she had been huddled in the doorway of a dated shoe shop. I walked along the alleyway between the corner store and bank. As I had hoped, Violet was sitting against the door of Bentley’s Shoes.
“Hello,” I said, smiling at the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. I would never admit it aloud, but she eclipsed my mother with her looks. She was pure and innocent, and I was drawn to her immediately.
She gasped and looked up, startled. “Um, hello.” Her eyes were pools of light blue tropical ocean, and I knew her wispy dark brown hair could be tamed into a sleek, presentable style. “Can I help you?”
“I would like to take you for a coffee.” I smiled.
Her mouth dropped open. “Why?” She frowned, her eyes darkened. “I’m not like that, you know?”
I held my hands up. “No, no, that’s not what I meant, and I’m glad to hear you’re that type of…person. I would just like to buy you a hot drink and perhaps something to eat. There’s a twenty-four-hour café just down the street.”
“I don’t get it. What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.” It’s you that I want to help. “Please, just let me buy you a late dinner?”
“Just dinner?”
I nodded, smiling. “Of course.”