Better Off Alone (Adopted by Brendon and Sarah Urie)

67. Sarah

"Mrs. Urie?" The voice on the other end of the phone said, sounding tentative. Callie's school was on the line. School had literally only started ten or fifteen minutes ago. Brendon and I were just turning into our subdivision so he could get to work and I could do whatever I needed to get done today.

"Speaking," I said, frowning. Brendon looked over at me while keeping an eye on the road.

The person sighed.

"This is Amanda, the receptionist at Merton School," she said.

"Yes? Is everything okay?"

"I'm not really sure how to tell you this," she said. I sat up and grabbed Brendon's arm. He shook my hand off and then grasped mine.

"Is Callie okay?" I asked.

"Well, apparently there was an incident in her class this morning. Another student upset her and she ran from the class. We've checked the school and our cameras and she's left the campus."

"What do you mean she's left the campus?!" I asked, both worried and furious.

As we had just pulled into the driveway, Brendon parked the car and was on his phone immediately, texting.

"She's not answering her phone," he whispered to me as he sent another text.

I didn't know what to do. We needed to go to the school and see if she was making her way back there. But someone needed to be home in case she was trying to make her way home.

Did she even know the way home? I couldn't be at the school and the house, but I needed to be in both places. I didn't know what to do.

"I don't know where she is, Zack!" Brendon said loudly. "If I knew I wouldn't be calling you asking for your help to find her."

Kala was calling my phone. We were still sitting in the car, in the driveway.

"Sarah, what's going on? Zack and Brendon are shouting at each other about Callie?"

"Something happened at school and she took off. We don't know all the details yet, but she left the campus and we don't know where she went. I want to be at the school in case she makes her way back there, but I need to be home in case she makes her way here."

"Shit," Kala said. "Look, why don't you two head to the school, Zack and I will come to your place. Do what you can at the school, and we'll be there. At the house, in case she shows up."

"Yeah. Yeah thanks. That makes sense."

I related to Brendon what Kala had said. He'd calmed down and stopped shouting at Zack.

"Okay. Yeah. Let's do that," he said, starting the car and pulling out of the driveway again.

"Not even an hour into the school day and they already lost our kid," Brendon grumbled.

"We don't know what happened yet."

"'The safety and security of our students is of the utmost importance," Brendon said in a mocking tone. "And yet, it's 9:30 in the morning and they have no idea where our 12-year-old is. Our Deaf 12-year-old, might I add, who doesn't handle stress very well right now. Who doesn't know the area around the school and barely knows the area around the house! She can't possibly know the route from the house to the school!"

"Brendon, what if she's really lost? What if she went towards the hills?"

His face paled. Besides rugged terrain, there were all sorts of dangers in the hills. Coyotes, other animals, snakes, sudden drops, crags and crevices, invisible cliffs, dangerous plants, and then just the elements. It was no place for anyone to be without proper planning. It was the end of August. It was still hot during the day, but nights in the hills got cold fast. Callie was only wearing her school polo shirt and a pair of jean shorts. We had to find her before nightfall.

Brendon probably broke a hundred traffic laws speeding back to the school but he got us there. We pulled up in front and Brendon turned off the car and got out.

"Sir? You can't park there," the security guard from the morning said.

"Kiss my ass," Brendon said. "Your school lost my kid. I'll park wherever I damned well please while I try to find out where my daughter is."

"Oh," the guard said. He obviously knew there was a missing student.

We pushed past the guard and walked into the school. Brendon was angry. He was walking so fast I could hardly keep up with him.

"B, please, calm down a little. It isn't going to help Callie if you go off half cocked at the staff," I pleaded.

He stopped and turned around to face me. The look on his face stunned me. There was anger, for sure but even worse, there was fear.

"She's a tiny 12-year-old," he said, his voice shaking. "That time she ran away because she though Sheri was going to make her leave?  If Zack and I hadn't found her when we did..."

He trailed off.

"She's so tiny and so vulnerable," he said quietly. "We got there just as one of those thugs was trying to rape her, Sarah. She was unconscious and he was going to rape her. Just because. Because she couldn't hear him. Because he'd knocked her out.

Now she's god knows where, with no phone, no way to contact us and quite possibly out in the wilderness. Where she won't hear anything that might come across a small child alone."

He was right. Of course he was right. I was trying to be calm and rational but calm and rational were standing behind distraught and terrified mother.

We walked into the office together, and Brendon stepped up to the desk and slammed his hand down.

"I want to know what happened in Callie's class that she took off. And I want to know where your security was that she got off campus!" He demanded.

The principal came out of her office. I saw another student sitting inside.

"Mr. and Mrs. Urie. I've spoken with the teacher and the student involved. It seems that the student was aware of the incident in the summer in New York and brought it up in class. Understandably, this upset your daughter quite a bit. She ran from the classroom and then from the school building. While we checked the grounds, we also checked the cameras and found that she left the grounds. We know which direction she went from here, but we don't know where she went after, obviously."

"Care to explain how you lost a whole child in less than an hour!?  We registered her here because your safety record and policies align with what we want for our daughter. And you lost her on the very first day of school!"

I put my hand on Brendon's arm. Yelling at the principal wasn't going to get Callie home any faster.

"I hope you've called the police!" Brendon said. "You have a Deaf, emotional child running around somewhere. If she heads into the hills..."

Brendon stopped. The number of things that could happen if Callie was in the hills... terrified us.

The school had called the police and they were on their way. We talked to the teacher as well and he explained exactly what had happened. They wouldn't let us talk to the student, and at this point, that was probably not a bad thing. Brendon was so upset. I was so upset. It would not be a good thing for us to get involved.

We waited for the police and spoke with the school, called friends, got the ball rolling in our search for our daughter.