The call came around midnight. Genevieve had been in bed and asleep for an
hour. It took her a few minutes to
first realize her cell phone was ringing, then another few to determine where
her cell phone actually was. She answered it on the last ring.
“Hello?” No one
called her this late except one of her kids when they were in “crisis”.
“Genevieve? This is
Frank”. His real name was Francisco and
he was originally from Madrid. Frank had
been in the US since he was 16 and his father was transferred here; you had to
listen very carefully to hear the accent.
“Frank? What’s
wrong? Why are you calling so
late?” Frank and Genevieve were
colleagues. They had known each other
for 10 years and considered each other friends, but rarely did anything outside
of work together.
“Can you come over? I
really need to talk to you” he said this with just a hint of desperation.
“Frank, I was already in bed and asleep. Is it that urgent?”
“Please?” again a slight pleading in his voice.
“Umm, give me at least 40 minutes, but you will get me
looking like I just crawled out of bed, which I did. AND I am not putting my contacts back in, so
deal. What’s your address?”
“12565 Whispering Pines Dr.”
“Ok, 40 minutes”
Genevieve got up, grabbed her glasses off the side table,
flipped on the bedroom light and stood there for a minute trying to get her
bearings. Yawning, she padded into her
bathroom. She flinched as she turned on
the bright bathroom lights. Looking at
herself in the mirror she shuddered. Her
long auburn hair was in a ponytail that she had caught up again in the same
covered rubber band so that it was not hanging down and wasn’t really a
bun. She rubbed the sleep out of her
eyes and quickly washed her face. She grabbed
her mascara and put just a hint of it on.
She wanted to look presentable, but not like she was making an effort
for him. She was 50, but looked 40 and
she knew it. Both her parents had looked
much younger than their real age. “Good
gene’s “, she muttered smiling. She
brushed her teeth, pulled the rubber band out of her hair and bent over to run
a quick brush through her hair. As she
stood up she whipped her hair back.
Another quick brush through and she was satisfied. She padded back into her bedroom and tried to
decide what to wear. It was mid-summer
so even at midnight it was still in the mid to upper sixties. She settled on a pair of green capris and
black t-shirt. She had to dig for her
black flip-flops but found them kicked half-way under her bed. She unplugged her phone and brought up
Google. She punched Frank’s address in
and squinted at the screen to figure out the best route to his house. Her cat Poser gave her a puzzled look as she
grabbed her purse and keys from the living room coffee table and headed for the
front door. “What are you looking
at?” she growled at him. He gave her an indignant swish of the tail
and laid back down on the top of the couch.
She had just bought her car two weeks ago, a 2013 Ford
Fusion Hybrid. She loved that car. Crawling into the car she pushed the start
button. Her radio blasted making her
jump and she quickly turned it down.
Shifting into reverse she backed out of the driveway then into drive and
turned left at the corner. Fifteen
minutes later she was pulling into his driveway. Suddenly she was nervous. That was not an emotion that she would have
ever associated with Frank. She chalked
it up to having been woken up in the middle of the night and not really
understanding why Frank had called her.
Frank was 8 years younger than Genevieve, married with two
kids. In the ten years that she had
known Frank, she had never actually met his wife Ann. She had never really thought about it. She had been to one party at his house a few
years earlier, but Ann had been out of town.
Now she started to panic, was something wrong with Ann, or one of the
kids? As she got out of her car the
garage door opened and Frank stood at the back door.
“Hi. You found it”
“The miracle of Google” she quipped then quickly added, “Are
you alright?”
“I’m good now”
“So what was the urgency?”
“Come in, we’ll talk.”
“I like you in glasses” he added
quietly.
She entered his house through the garage door which led into
the kitchen. He guided her through to
the living room and motioned for her to sit on the couch.
“Ok, it’s late and you woke me from a dead sleep. What is going on that it is so urgent you
needed me right away?”
“I’m sorry. Ann left
me”
“Oh my god! Are you
ok? Did she take the kids? Where did she go? What can I do to help?”
“She left last month.
She walked out on me AND the kids.
I have no idea where she is at, but I can guess. I’m just glad you’re here.”
