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Melancholy
#WritcoStoryChallenge
The letter carried brief instructions: 'Meet me at the corner of the street', it read. But who was it from?
Sharla Tatham read the words over and over then flipped the lined paper to its back with shaking hands.
"Darned neighborhood kids must be playing some kind of joke," she said aloud. The middle-aged woman crumpled the letter into a tight ball and shoved it into her sweater pocket.
She looked toward her little house. It was a beautiful autumn day. The leaves were beginning to turn a comforting golden- orange and there was a slight nip in the air. "Autumn," she mumbled.
Autumn was Sharla's favorite time of year, or at least it used to be. They used to decorate for the holidays, have weenie and marshmallow roasts and go on hayrides with the church group during the Fall Festival. They didn't do that anymore.
There was no 'they' now. It was just Sharla. All alone. Single, solitary Sharla. Denny had left about a year after it happened. Ten months to be exact. Maggie would invariably be irritated with her father for skipping out. But Sharla understood his reasons.
He couldn't stand the sorrow and pain. He couldn't endure his feelings of helplessness. He hated seeing Sharla, his beloved wife of ten years suffer the unknowns and the heartbreaks. So he left. He had packed his bags and moved out. On to another city and eventually another state. It was a blow to her already fragile psyche when the divorce papers came. How could he do this after all they had been through? Why?
Denny, her high school sweetheart, had called a few times to check on her. He was a good man. Sharla didn't really blame him when it came right down to it. She had kept him on a pedestal, thought of him as Superman; but he wasn't. Anyone would have crumbled during that kind of storm. She certainly had.
Many months and months and months of therapy had finally dragged her back onto her feet. She heard Denny had gotten remarried and got a good job working for KQ Owen Holdings. She truly hoped he was happy with his new life.
Yet, she couldn't help but feel melancholy from time to time. She supposed she always would in some way. A song on the radio, a television commercial or seeing Maggie's old friends could send her into a downward spiral. Hard to believe her beautiful daughter would be seventeen now. She would have been graduating from high school with Amy, Lonnie, Rachel and Henry at the end of the year. Sweet Lauren was the only one who came around every so often to chat.
Most everyone avoided 9183 Juniper Lane afterward. No one knew what to say. No one knew what to do. Friends, family or neighbors. After the investigation ended up on the Cold Case shelf, even police and reporters stopped calling ... one by one by one.
The letter suddenly seemed to burn a hole in her sweater pocket. Sharla uncrumpled the ball, looked down and read the words again. 'Meet me at the corner of the street.' She looked to the left and then to the right. Which corner? What time? Did the letter's author mean now? Right now? Was he, or she, watching her at this very moment?
Sharla could feel a red hot heat crawl up the back of her neck and lodge into her cheekbones. How dare the writer invade her personal space? How dare this person watch her like she was a caged animal at the city zoo?
Angry thoughts propelled the woman forward. She wasn't sure why she chose to turn right but she didn't question her decision. She wasn't sure what she would say to this loser but was definitely ready for a confrontation. Her mind didn't allow her time to call authorities.
Overgrown bushes at the edge of Earl and LillyMae Corry's property concealed a good portion of the sidewalk beyond. Sharla's heartbeat quickened. She began to perspire. Was she being stupid? Could she be in some sort of danger? Fury knotted in her throat. No. She was determined to find out what this was all about.
And then, a teenaged girl slowly emerged from the still-green leaves. Long, dirty-blonde hair. A smattering of dark freckles across the bridge of her tiny nose. She was painfully thin. She was bruised and scratched from head to toe. Wearing pink, short, shorts and a torn black tank top. But she had the most beautiful hazel eyes. Tearful hazel eyes, just like she had ... Maggie?
"M-M-Maggie?"
"Mom?" The young girl questioned the authenticity of the older woman.
Sharla dropped to her knees on the hard, cracked concrete. "Is it really you?"
Margaret Haleigh Tatham had vanished eight years earlier when she was only nine. No one had heard a thing. No one had seen a thing. Where had she been?
© Melissa Andres
#love #relationship #mystery #girl #vanished #letter #instructions #corner
The letter carried brief instructions: 'Meet me at the corner of the street', it read. But who was it from?
Sharla Tatham read the words over and over then flipped the lined paper to its back with shaking hands.
"Darned neighborhood kids must be playing some kind of joke," she said aloud. The middle-aged woman crumpled the letter into a tight ball and shoved it into her sweater pocket.
She looked toward her little house. It was a beautiful autumn day. The leaves were beginning to turn a comforting golden- orange and there was a slight nip in the air. "Autumn," she mumbled.
Autumn was Sharla's favorite time of year, or at least it used to be. They used to decorate for the holidays, have weenie and marshmallow roasts and go on hayrides with the church group during the Fall Festival. They didn't do that anymore.
There was no 'they' now. It was just Sharla. All alone. Single, solitary Sharla. Denny had left about a year after it happened. Ten months to be exact. Maggie would invariably be irritated with her father for skipping out. But Sharla understood his reasons.
He couldn't stand the sorrow and pain. He couldn't endure his feelings of helplessness. He hated seeing Sharla, his beloved wife of ten years suffer the unknowns and the heartbreaks. So he left. He had packed his bags and moved out. On to another city and eventually another state. It was a blow to her already fragile psyche when the divorce papers came. How could he do this after all they had been through? Why?
Denny, her high school sweetheart, had called a few times to check on her. He was a good man. Sharla didn't really blame him when it came right down to it. She had kept him on a pedestal, thought of him as Superman; but he wasn't. Anyone would have crumbled during that kind of storm. She certainly had.
Many months and months and months of therapy had finally dragged her back onto her feet. She heard Denny had gotten remarried and got a good job working for KQ Owen Holdings. She truly hoped he was happy with his new life.
Yet, she couldn't help but feel melancholy from time to time. She supposed she always would in some way. A song on the radio, a television commercial or seeing Maggie's old friends could send her into a downward spiral. Hard to believe her beautiful daughter would be seventeen now. She would have been graduating from high school with Amy, Lonnie, Rachel and Henry at the end of the year. Sweet Lauren was the only one who came around every so often to chat.
Most everyone avoided 9183 Juniper Lane afterward. No one knew what to say. No one knew what to do. Friends, family or neighbors. After the investigation ended up on the Cold Case shelf, even police and reporters stopped calling ... one by one by one.
The letter suddenly seemed to burn a hole in her sweater pocket. Sharla uncrumpled the ball, looked down and read the words again. 'Meet me at the corner of the street.' She looked to the left and then to the right. Which corner? What time? Did the letter's author mean now? Right now? Was he, or she, watching her at this very moment?
Sharla could feel a red hot heat crawl up the back of her neck and lodge into her cheekbones. How dare the writer invade her personal space? How dare this person watch her like she was a caged animal at the city zoo?
Angry thoughts propelled the woman forward. She wasn't sure why she chose to turn right but she didn't question her decision. She wasn't sure what she would say to this loser but was definitely ready for a confrontation. Her mind didn't allow her time to call authorities.
Overgrown bushes at the edge of Earl and LillyMae Corry's property concealed a good portion of the sidewalk beyond. Sharla's heartbeat quickened. She began to perspire. Was she being stupid? Could she be in some sort of danger? Fury knotted in her throat. No. She was determined to find out what this was all about.
And then, a teenaged girl slowly emerged from the still-green leaves. Long, dirty-blonde hair. A smattering of dark freckles across the bridge of her tiny nose. She was painfully thin. She was bruised and scratched from head to toe. Wearing pink, short, shorts and a torn black tank top. But she had the most beautiful hazel eyes. Tearful hazel eyes, just like she had ... Maggie?
"M-M-Maggie?"
"Mom?" The young girl questioned the authenticity of the older woman.
Sharla dropped to her knees on the hard, cracked concrete. "Is it really you?"
Margaret Haleigh Tatham had vanished eight years earlier when she was only nine. No one had heard a thing. No one had seen a thing. Where had she been?
© Melissa Andres
#love #relationship #mystery #girl #vanished #letter #instructions #corner
