Under the Blue Moon

Chapter 28

When Clayton arrives at the office at 9:00 AM, on this Tuesday morning, he feels a sense of unease and cannot figure out why. Once in his office, he texts his ex-wife to check in on her and his children. He receives a reply text from her, almost immediately, telling him that she and the kids are doing well. He thanks her for getting back to him so quickly and decides to go down the list of the most important people in his life and start reaching out to them one by one. He realizes that everyone he loves and cares about is doing fine and safe. However, knowing that does not seem to alleviate the feeling of restless anxiety. As he always does every morning, he checks his emails and voicemails, but notices nothing urgent there either.

Around 9:30 AM, his administrative assistant, Lisa, knocks on his office door. He says, "Come in," and she enters. Lisa reviews with him his schedule for today and promptly leaves to let him start his morning. As he goes through the items on his agenda for the day, he finds it difficult to concentrate on his work because of this pebble of anxiety that does not seem to want to relent. Deciding that he would take a quick break and talk to Jordan, he walks out of his office suite and goes to Jordan's. He waves good morning to Janice, Jordan's administrative assistant, and knocks on Jordan's door. He hears, "Come in," and enters his old friend's office.

Jordan says, "Good morning, what's up? You never visit me this early in the day. Is everything okay?"

Clayton answers, "Good morning. I don't know. I've been feeling this weird anxiety all morning and have no idea what is causing it. The feeling was so intense that I ended up calling my ex-wife to see if she and the kids were okay."

Jordan replies "Jesus, what's going on with you? When did you start feeling like this?"

"Just this morning. I have no clue why. There isn't anything coming up that has been stressing me out. But I'm a hair away from feeling like I'm about to jump out of my skin."

Jordan looks at him with concern in his eyes. That's when Janice knocks on Jordan's door and rushes into the office with urgency in her steps.

Janice says, "Jordan, you need to pick up line one right now. A woman named Emma Taylor from the London office is calling and she sounds pretty upset."

Jordan and Clayton turn to look at each other simultaneously. Jordan says, "Okay, I'll take it now. Thank you."

Jordan picks up line one and puts it on speaker phone. Jordan says, "Hello? Good morning Emma. This is Jordan Reed. How is everything this morning?"

Clayton jumps in and says, "Hi Emma. This is Clayton, I'm here with Jordan."

Hearing a familiar voice, Emma perks up and says, "Hello Clayton. Good to hear your voice. Though I am sorry that it has to be under these circumstances."

Without any prompting, Emma Taylor tells both Jordan and Clayton of your absence this morning, her attempts at reaching you several times all day, and the news of the explosions in the Underground and one of the blasts happening right at the station that you normally use to get to the office.

Emma says, "I tried calling the police here, but I was not able to get through to them. I am sure it is all hands-on deck for the law enforcement in London right now. I have no information other than what I've been getting from the news for the last five to six hours. She still hasn't returned any of my calls or text messages. I am not entirely sure what else to do at this point. So, I thought I would at least let you know of what is going on here.

"Now, there is a very good chance that she wasn't able to get on the tube and is just stranded somewhere. And it isn't unusual that mobile services, during a crisis like this, to be terrible. I am hoping that that is why I haven't been able to contact her. I will continue to try getting in touch with her. I will also continue to try getting through to the police. If anything changes or if she returns my calls or shows up to the office, I will have her give you a call to directly. I'm sorry to call with something like this. If there is something specific that you would want me to do, please feel free to let me know."