章 8: The Unthinkable Happens - 2
"What are you saying?" Carl asked in a low tone. He could not understand what his wife was telling him. Yes, she was mumbling something and words were coming out of her mouth as he could see but Carl wasn't hearing anything.
"Where's Kim? Where's Kendra?" he asked. "Did you take them to your mother's?" Carl asked again as he stepped closer to his wife. The door of the house was still open, even the car doors had not been closed. Everything was upside down but Carl didn't pay attention to all those. He looked deeply into Michelle's face waiting for a response.
"They have school tomorrow and can't afford to spend time there…Not now…" he said.
He hadn't even allowed Michelle to respond to any of the questions that he'd thrown at her. "You should have asked me before taking them there, Michelle…" Carl said. There was a worried look on his face amidst all the questions that he'd asked.
"Carl!" Michelle yelled. This was the first time that her voice had come out. She had been talking but even she couldn't hear what she was saying. They had to do something and do it fast. They were wasting time here and Carl kept asking her questions that weren't related to what had happened in any way.
Carl froze and stared at his wife. He waited for what she had to say and it was as if that was when he'd really noticed that she had been crying. Her hair was disheveled and she had mascara stains on her face.
"Michelle?"
"I- I can't… We have to go to the police right away! Like right now!" she exclaimed as she took hold of his wrists and was about to drag him toward the door.
"The police?" Carl said as he pulled his hands out of Michelle's grip. "What for? Where are the girls?"
"I can't- "Michelle began but her throat tightened. She cleared her throat with a whimper as her eyes got filled with tears again.
"I can't find them, Carl," Michelle said as she burst into tears again. A wail escaped her lips as she bent down and sat on the ground.
Carl chuckled for a moment. He stared at his wife who was seated on the ground just a few inches away from his feet. He wiped his chin with his right hand as his fingers played with the scar that was on the left side of his chin. Carl's eyes danced around the ceiling of their sitting room as his brain and every fiber in his body tried to process what his wife had just said. Carl found himself in deep denial as he asked Michelle again; "You mean Kim and Kendra aren't in your mother's house?"
"They only wanted to slide down from the slide that was at the far corner of the park I took them to after I had gotten them from school, but…"
Carl had been listening closely to Michelle. He squatted and asked her; "But what, Michelle? But what?"
"But I only took my eyes off of them to answer a phone call and the next thing I knew…" Michelle trailed off as she covered her face with both her hands.
"Yes? The next thing? Michelle... Talk to me! What happened? Where are my girls?"
Carl asked as his voice broke towards the end of his questions.
"I didn't find them!" Michelle said. "I looked everywhere in that park for them! I screamed their names. People helped me search for them but no one seemed to have seen them leave the park I don't know- I don't know what could have happened. I-"
Carl dashed out the door without waiting for Michelle to finish her statement.
Quickly, Michelle got up from the ground that she was on and had to run to catch up with Carl who had already started the ignition of his car. Michelle didn't even care about hers. She opened the passenger door of Carl's car and stepped in. She hadn't even closed the door yet when the car reversed with such speed that the tires screeched loudly.
"Which park?" Carl asked with such a cold voice. His eyes were as hard as stones and his jaw muscles rippled from time to time.
"The one that is around their school. We just went there for-"
"Will they be open at this time?" Carl asked then scoffed. He shook his head at the stupid question that he had just asked knowing that even though the park would have closed, he would bring down the place to find out what had happened to his daughters. Carl could not believe his ears. There was a ringing inside his ears and his head felt full. However, he tried to bide himself till he got to the park. He would find his girls. Maybe they had gone to a corner to ease themselves or had mistakenly gotten locked in the toilet or something of that nature. Maybe they had wandered somewhere and had gotten lost and were probably scared and crying in the park right now. He reprimanded himself for wasting so much time asking Michelle questions. He had just been so confused initially.
The drive to the park was fast and the silence in the car was so thick that it could be cut with a knife. The car stereo that often played music wasn't turned on this time around and Michelle's gaze was out of the window one hundred percent of the time. Her fingers were intertwined as they continually rubbed against each other. As for Carl, his eyes were fixed on the road as his mind went through all the places that he would search once he hit the park.
In about ten minutes, Carl and Michelle got to the park and got down from the car. Immediately, Carl got into a run and sprinted for the area where the slides were located. All the while he was running, he kept calling out the names of his daughters. But he got no response.
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