Losing Hope: A Novel

Chapter Seventeen

Les,


I’m sorry I didn’t find her sooner. I can’t help but wonder if it would have made a difference. I’m so sorry.


H
    

Chapter Eighteen

Les,


She still has your bracelet, though. That has to mean something to you.


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Chapter Nineteen

Les,

I don’t know what to do. It’s been over six hours now and I keep trying to figure out if I should go to her house and tell her everything or if I should give it more time.

I think I’ll give it more time. I need to process this.

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Chapter Twenty

Les,


What if I call Karen and explain everything to her? Sky seems to have a good relationship with her. Karen could figure out what to do.


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Chapter Twenty-one

Les,


Shit. What if Karen is the one who did it?


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Chapter Twenty-two

Les,


What if I tell Mom? I could tell Mom and she could figure out what we need to do or if we need to call the police. She’s a lawyer. I’m sure she deals with this kind of stuff all the time.


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Chapter Twenty-three

Les,


I can’t tell Mom. Mom’s in intellectual property law. She wouldn’t know what to do any more than I do.


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Chapter Twenty-four

Les,


It’s almost midnight. Twelve hours I’ve let this continue without giving her a single explanation for what happened at lunch today. God, I hope I didn’t make her cry.


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Chapter Twenty-five

Les,


She’s probably asleep right now. I’ll tell her in the morning. She runs every morning so I’ll just show up and run with her, then I’ll tell her. We’ll figure out what to do after that.


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Chapter Twenty-six

Les,

I can’t sleep.

I can’t believe I actually found her.

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Chapter Twenty-seven

Les,

Why do you think she calls herself Sky?

There was this thing we used to do when we were little. We only did it a few times because she was taken shortly after that. But she used to cry all the time and I hated it, so we would lie in the driveway and watch the sky and I would hold on to her finger. I remember thinking it was gross to hold a girl’s hand so I would always hold her pinky, instead. Because even though I was just a kid and it was gross to hold a girl’s hand, I really did want to hold her hand.

I used to tell her to think about the sky when she got sad and she always promised me she would. Now here she is. And her name is Sky.

It’s three in the morning. None of this makes any sense. I’m going to sleep now.

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