A Mythical Journey

Mrs. Neal

After we eat I ask Rhett if he can take me over to Christy's. He tells me it isn't a good idea because she doesn't want to discuss Link, she's deeply hurt. I know she's hurt, but she's Link's wife, she knows him more than I do. After all, she lives with him, I'm just his audience on YouTube.
I finally convince him to take me, he parks in front of the house and I get off.

"Should I come with you?" Rhett asks.
"Um, no. I'm okay, I'll try not to take long." I reply
"Okay then, I'll wait for you here."

I walk up to the front door and knock. I look at my shoes. Silence. I don't know why, but I get a little nervous, maybe it's because I don't know Christy. I knock once more. I shift my head up, and stare into the blue sky. . . The door opens suddenly startling me, and a beautiful blond woman looks down at me.

"Uh, hi. My name is Evelyn." I say a bit nervous after a couple of seconds.
"Can I help you with anything?" She asks.
"Um yes, are you Christy Neal?"
"Yes" Christy looks like she's been crying.
"I was wondering if maybe I can talk to you about Link?"
"Look right now is not a good time." She says beginning to close the door.
"Wait! It's important. " I say stopping her.
"Look, I'm very busy. I am going through a lot of things right now, I do not need a crazy fan here to ask me all these questions about my husband. I may be Link's wife, but I do not want to be involved with his fans, specially not right now!" After she spits this out at me, she shuts the door. I guess it wasn't such a great idea to wear my mythical merchandise today. I sigh. What am I supposed to do now? She practically just kicked me out. I notice the window's opened. I know that if she's in there she can hear me.

"Christy" I say in a very kind voice. There's no reply, but I know she must be listening. "I'm sorry I came at an inconvenient time. And I know and I'm sorry about what happened with your husband. But I want to help." She still doesn't answer but I know she's there. So I ask, "please?"

It gets really quiet and I wait for a response. Nothing. I wait a little longer. Silence. I'm about to give up when the door suddenly opens again. I look at Christy and she let's me in.

"Have a seat" she points to the sofa, I sit down, she goes into the kitchen, "want a drink?"
"Um, no thank you," I reply, "I just ate."
"So, you wanted to talk to me about Link" she says washing a pile of dishes.
"Um, yes."

"Mommy!" Lando comes winning and running towards the kitchen, but he stops when he sees me.
"Lando! I've told you many times not to run inside the house!"
"Who is she?!" Lando asked looking at me curiously.
"Her name is Evelyn." Christy responded.
Lando looks at me a little longer, so I smile at him. He smiles back and then continues winning, "Mom! Lincoln doesn't want to let me play Pokémon cards with him!"
"Lando doesn't know how to play!" Lincoln yells from his room.
"Don't yell! Come over here" once Lincoln comes Christy tells him, " He'll never learn because you don't want to teach him."
"I do but he just bends them!" Lincoln protests
"No I don't" Lando denies
"Yeah you do. Besides you're too small to play!"
"No I'm not...!" Lando screeches
"Okay, enough! You two stop fighting and behave yourselves, there's a guest in the house and you're being very disrespectful. "
"I'm sorry," Lando apologizes
"It's okay" I tell him.
"Who is she anyway?!" Asks Lincoln shooting me a glare.
"She's Evelyn our guest and that's all you need to know." Christy says with finality, " now, why don't you go play outside with your sister? She's alone, I'm sure she'll like your company."
"Okay!" Says Lando as he runs towards the back yard screaming, "Lily! Lily!"
"I wish daddy was here" Lincoln frowns.
"I wish so too, but we can't be moping around."
"Where is he anyway?"
"I don't know, but I'm sure he'll come back." It's Christy's job to reassure her children, "now do as I say and go outside"

Lincoln looks like he's close to tears, but obeys and leaves, then Christy turns to me and apologizes.

"It's alright" I tell her.
"So what exactly do you want to know about Link?" Christy asks as she pulls a chair beside me and sits. I take a deep breath.
"The night before he disappeared, was he acting strange?"
"No, he wasn't"
"Did he say anything weird?"
"No, he went right on to sleep."
I think about this a little bit then I ask, "where do you think he is?"
"For all I know he might be cheating on me" Christy says this without looking me in the eye.
For some reason I felt hurt she would think that, but then I imagined how she must feel, "I don't think he's cheating on you. I don't think he'd ever do that."
"How do you know?"
"He loves you" I tell her, "and he's got no reason to. You're beautiful. I just witnessed how great of a mother you are, and I bet you're a great wife too. Link loves you. He's said it on the show. I've been watching every single one of their videos and in all hundreds of them, he's never said anything as sincere."
"Then where is he? Why did he abandon us? If he really loves me, why isn't he back?"
"Well I'm not sure" I admit, "but you know, I've been doing some research on people going missing here in California, and I found something very interesting. Have you ever heard of Forest Illusive?
"No."
"Maybe because it has been closed to the general public for decades now, they say it's a dangerous place and people who go there are lost and never found. Not even the police would go"
"So you're suggesting he's somewhere in there?"
"Maybe"
"But you said the government even retains police men to go in there, so why would Link?" She stands up and stares out the window, "it's hard not to imagine he's with someone else"
"He'd never do that to you and you know it" I can hear her sob
"You don't know that " Christy stars crying a little louder then whispers, "I've probably lost Link forever"
I stand up and hug Christy, "That's not true" I use my most soothing voice, "Christy, wipe those tears away, be a strong woman. I can't promise you much, but I will look for him, and I promise that I won't come back without him."
She stops crying looks at me, smiles and then hugs me, "you're so kind. But I wouldn't want you to get lost."
"Too bad. I already gave my word for it" I pull away from the hug gently and start towards the door, "bye Christy, it was a pleasure meeting you, but the next time you see me, you'll see Link too"

As I step out the door I stumble across with her children, and the guilty smiles they're wearing tell me they've been listening to our conversation. They stand up and Lily asks excitedly, "You're gonna bring back my dad?"
"Um yes"
"Are you leaving already?" Asks Lando, "you're not gonna stay and play with us?"
"Yeah, stay" Lincoln chimes in even though he disliked me a while ago, "do you know how to play Pokémon?" I nod, "then stay and play with me"
"I'd love to stay and play with you all, but I need to go"
"Yeah, she's going to go get Daddy back" says Lily, "then when she comes back, we can all play together with Dad"
"That's right" I tell them. They all go into the house and I walk up to Rhett's car where he was waiting for me. He's asleep with the windows open. Did I really took that long?
"Hey Rhett" I say waking him up. I startle him.
"Hey kid" he says yawning, "I thought you'd never come out"
I smile at him and he tells me to get in already, once I buckle my seat belt he asks, "So where's the next stop?"
"Forest Illusive"
"Are you sure you want to go in there?"
"Nope. I don't want to go, but I do want to find Link and something tells me he really is in there"
"Okay then, we'll stop by my house so I can get ready"
"I want to go alone"
"You're crazy kid" Rhett tells me, "you can't go alone. There's no way I'll let you."
"Yes you are, you're gonna drop me off at the forest and come back to pick me up at eight in the dusk"
Rhett stares at me briefly and says, "you sound so sure"
"I'm not very excited to go into that haunted place alone, but I can't let you leave your family, they need you, if you want to help, then help Christy. No one will miss me, but you will be missed. There can't be another family without a man. Besides I'm prepared, and I only aim to check things out. To see how accurate those articles I read are. Then I'll be back and we'll try to get profesional help."
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as the stars and the heaven above"
"I admire your willpower"