Any day now.
I am glad that Crystal with a C found my Baby Doll in the suitcase. I am glad she took care of it and went over there every day but I’m also anxious about Gloria taking care of it herself. I know she won’t give it food or keep it clean. I know she sometimes has strange men come sleep over. Plus there’s Donald. I believe everything Crystal with a C says and I trust her 100 percent but there are some things she just doesn’t know because she wasn’t there all the time. Some things I remember deep in my brain and won’t ever, ever talk about.
Which means I have to go find Gloria’s apartment right now. I can’t wait.
23
EXACTLY 7:02 IN THE MORNING,
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19TH
I walk into the living room. I need to find a computer so that I can look for Gloria’s address because I don’t know where I am or where she is or how to get there.
I look at the woodstove which has a fire in it. I look at the couch and at the chair. There’s no TV. I look around for a computer but I don’t see one. I walk down the hallway and find the bathroom. I pee. I find a bedroom with Crystal with a C’s things in the dresser. Then I find another bedroom with a bed and a desk. The desk has a light on it and nothing in the drawers. The bed has sheets and a wool blanket and a pillow.
I look in all the closets and the cabinets. There is no computer in this house. There is nothing that can tell me what town I’m in or where Gloria is. I don’t know her address.
So I will go find a library.
The library is where you go when you want to get on a computer to find something out. Or when you want to send a message to Gloria. I’m guessing Gloria might not be able to send me a message on Manicoon.com because the police are watching it but she might have her address on the page. I remember that there was a button that said Contact Me.
I take the half gallon of milk I brought from the Blue House out of the refrigerator for my Baby Doll. It really likes milk. Milk is what all babies need. I put the half gallon back in my backpack with my flute and my quilt. Then I zip my jacket and go to the bathroom again and put my backpack on and walk out the door.
The driveway leads down through the woods. Tall grass grows on the side of it. It brushes my pants as I walk. The wind is loud all around me and the air is cold. At the end of the driveway I come to a road. It goes left and right. There are trees across the street and trees on this side of the street and no other cars and no buildings.
I stand and think. A car goes by. A red car that comes from the right and goes to the left. I don’t know if it’s going to or from town. I’m guessing if I was in the car I would be going to school. And school is in town. So I start walking that way.
Right away I see a man coming toward me.
I start picking at my fingers.
The man comes walking up over a hill. He is dressed in clothes that are all green and brown with crisscrossed lines all over. He has big brown boots and a hat. He is carrying something over his shoulder. It is a gun.
I want to run and hide. I don’t like men especially if they are policemen and this man is like a policeman even though I don’t think he is one because he isn’t wearing the right uniform. He is wearing what a hunter wears. The brown and green lines tell me he is good at hiding and sneaking.
“’Morning,” says the man in a happy voice as he comes closer.
He stops right in front of me. I am glad he didn’t ask me anything but then he says, “Are you on your way to catch the bus? The school bus came by about two or three minutes ago.”
I want to say Well dang! but instead I say, “No.”
He looks at me. “Someone coming to pick you up, then?”
I shake my head. Maybe if I stop giving answers with my mouth he’ll stop asking questions with his.
“Well, then, what are you doing out here all by yourself on a school day?”
I can’t tell him where I’m going. If I do I’ll get caught.
“I am going for a walk,” I say. Because it’s true. I was walking.
“A walk? Are you walking to school?”
“No,” I say.
“You’re just walking, then,” he says.
“I am just walking,” I say.
“Okay,” he says. And then, “Say, you don’t happen to be wearing a Michael Jackson shirt under that jacket, do you?” He puts his finger out toward me.
I recoil.
When I look back at him he is putting his two hands out like he’s asking me to be quiet. “Sorry,” he says. “It’s just that I heard on the radio that they’re looking for a girl about your age wearing a Michael Jackson shirt and carrying a flute. Well, watch out for moose on your walk, all right? I went out for deer this morning, but moose are still crossing the roads. They’re still out and about. The bulls are crazy this time of year. Okay?”
“Okay,” I say. Then I step around him very, very carefully in case he tries to touch me again. I keep walking but I don’t hear him walking away. I know he’s still looking at me.
So I start counting.
At five I hear footsteps on the road so I look behind me quick. He is walking backward and still watching. I stare at him. He waves and turns and starts walking the regular way.
But now I am anxious because the man might call the police. I stop and count to twenty and then turn all the way around. The man is gone. I start going back the way I came to the driveway. I’m guessing that if I go to town and find the library right now I will get caught. I will try again tomorrow.
Then I get scared because someone else could see me right now. Maybe another car will go by or I’ll see someone else on the road. I step into the woods and walk through the trees and tall grass until I get back to the Little White House at the top of the driveway.
24
EXACTLY 7:09 AT NIGHT,
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19TH
It is dark outside. I see lights coming toward the house. Tires on the driveway. A car door shuts and someone comes up the steps.
I move fast into the living room.
Then Crystal with a C opens the door and walks right in. “Hey, Ginny,” she says. She walks right past me into the kitchen and puts two plastic bags down on the counter. “How did it go today? Everything at work was fine. No one even mentioned the whole Amber Alert thing, except some new contractor in the break room.” I hear her open the refrigerator. “Whoa.”
I am still in the living room next to the screen door.
“Ginny, the eggs are still here, but where’s the rest of the food?”
So I say, “I ate it.”
“You ate it?”
I nod my head yes.
Crystal with a C walks into the living room. “Ginny, did you really eat all the food in the refrigerator? Except the eggs?”
I nod my head yes again even though I hid the bread and the milk in a closet. She walks to the garbage can and looks inside it. She picks up the empty ketchup bottle and the little papers that went around the butter. And the empty cheese wrapper. “You seriously ate all this?”
“Yes.”
“Did you cook something?”