Something She's Not Telling Us - Darcey Bell Page 0,8

face.

Right away she can tell that something’s wrong. The supercompetent after-school teachers—Tanya, Edditha, and Michelle—are trying not to look confused. Clustered around the sign-out book, they scrutinize the final page.

“What’s going on?” Charlotte asks.

What she wants to hear is: Nothing. But she senses that’s not what she’s about to hear.

Tanya says, “I guess there’s been a little mix-up. She’s already been picked up.”

Maybe Eli changed his mind and left rehearsal—how grateful Charlotte will be! She feels guilty for having been annoyed with him. She’ll make it up to him somehow. She’ll be extra nice this evening, and then tonight, in bed . . .

“Her dad?” Charlotte says.

Tanya and Michelle look at each other.

“No,” says Michelle. “Her aunt.”

“Her aunt?” says Charlotte. “What aunt? She doesn’t have an aunt!”

Her anxiety has gone from zero to sixty in under five seconds. She tells herself: Calm down. It’s a mistake. They’ll figure this out and get Daisy from her classroom, and that will be that. Problem solved.

She reaches for the sign-out book.

“Can I see?” A jagged vibrato shakes her voice, though it’s too early for panic. Unless it isn’t. Before she can look at the list of names of the parents and caretakers happily going home with their children, the women gently repossess it and call the head of after-school, Mrs. Hernandez.

“Hello, Charlotte,” Mrs. Hernandez says, proving that, like her employees, she remembers everyone’s name. “There must be some misunderstanding. Your sister-in-law signed Daisy out at three—that’s over two hours ago.” She shows Charlotte the line on which it says:

3:00. Ruth Seagram

“She’s not my sister-in-law!” It’s not what Charlotte means to say. What she wants to say is: I need this to be fixed! I need this not to have happened! Why does Ruth have my daughter? Someone needs to make this right! Now!

Michelle says, “She was very nicely dressed, in a suit and little heels and this big fuzzy vest.”

What does Charlotte care what her daughter’s kidnapper was wearing?

Actually, she cares a lot. What Ruth’s wearing might be the most important fact in the world, second only to what Daisy has on.

What was Daisy wearing this morning? Why can’t Charlotte remember?

Maybe Rocco and Ruth came for Daisy. Maybe Eli reached Rocco.

“Was she alone?”

“No,” says Michelle. “There was a guy with her.”

So it was Rocco. Thank God.

“Big guy? Six four? Dark curly hair? Two-day stubble, probably? Three-day stubble, maybe.” Charlotte laughs. “My brother.”

Tanya and Michelle aren’t laughing.

“No . . . ,” Michelle says. “This guy was short. Kind of slight. Glasses. Graying hair.”

“Heavily gelled,” says Tanya. “I remember thinking that the guy used an awful lot of product.”

It sounds like someone Charlotte knows, but who? Where is Daisy? Why has Ruth taken her daughter? Who was Ruth with?

They wait several minutes for two school officials, a man and a woman Charlotte has never met. She doesn’t want to meet them, doesn’t want to know who they are or what their position is. She doesn’t want to watch them calmly and professionally dealing with the question of who might have taken her daughter by mistake. Mixed signals, confusion, whatever. Who has stolen Daisy?

With her permission is what these strangers seem to be saying. They show her Ruth’s name. On the pickup list. There it is. Right there.

Then she remembers: The circus. Rocco and Ruth took Daisy to the circus. She should have taken Ruth off the list. But it didn’t seem important. And she’d had so many more urgent things that she had to do.

Charlotte is going to wake up, and this will be a normal afternoon. Daisy will appear in the doorway and burst into smiles when she sees her mom, and she’ll run across the cafeteria, swinging her lunch box in circles.

Mrs. Hernandez says, “We have it on record . . . Ruth Seagram is right here on the list . . . We can only do what you tell us.”

Charlotte should have taken Ruth off the list. She had other things on her mind. She’d been focused on the Mexico trip. And now her daughter has been kidnapped by a woman claiming to be her sister-in-law. Rocco and Ruth aren’t married. Daisy doesn’t have an aunt!

Once more she thinks: Calm down. There’s probably some logical explanation. Maybe Ruth just wants to spend the afternoon with Daisy. Maybe Rocco got Charlotte’s text and asked Ruth to pick Daisy up, since he couldn’t or wouldn’t. Maybe this isn’t a problem. But why didn’t Ruth ask her—or tell her? Why didn’t anyone bother to inform