Ice Cold

52

Wren Ridley

Olivia was shaking her leg as she sat in the passenger seat of my car while we looked for Landon. The action reminded me of her brother, so much so that I actively tried to block her out of my vision. I got flashes of Landon sitting in that very seat, doing the very same thing while we looked for Olivia one time a while back. The tables had turned and the stakes were higher. Landon was out there alone and injured. Anything could happen to him if we didn't find him soon.

Driving around town seemed to be useless. We had no idea of how he had even gotten here. I drove around town slowly, thoroughly checking the streets, the sidewalks, looking into the woods and people's yards. We couldn't find him and it was making us both irritable and anxious.

"I think we should go check at the Hansons," Olivia had said, and so we did.

No one was home. All the lights were out and when I knocked on the door, no one came to answer it. I even walked around back to where Landon's bedroom was in the house and there were no signs that he was in there.

I eventually resorted to calling hospitals in the area to see if he, or anyone with his description, had been admitted.

"Hello, I'm just calling to see if someone named Landon Reilly has been admitted," I said to the third hospital. "I have reason to believe he would be seeking medical attention, but he has been unreachable for a couple hours now."

Generally, hospitals could give you a yes or no on if someone was there, but they wouldn't be able to tell me anything about his condition if he was actually at the hospital.

"We don't have a patient by that name," the person on the line said.

"If I give a description, can you tell me if any unidentified patients match?" I asked.

"We do not currently have any unidentified patients, but give me a description and we'll be on the look out."

So I gave her a description of Landon and left my number with her in case he turned up there.

I sighed, feeling discouraged, and I could tell Olivia was feeling the same. I leaned my head back on the headrest and closed my eyes, trying to wrack my brain for anywhere he might be.

"Now what?" Olivia cried, causing me to open my eyes and look at her. "He could be anywhere. He could be passed out. We need to call the police and tell them he's missing so they can search."

"Hold on, let me call one of his friends at school and see if he's there," I told her, grabbing my phone from the cupholder to call Jess.

Jess answered the phone after two rings.

"What's up?" she answered. I could tell she was at Stella's. Stella and James were arguing in the background.

"You haven't happened to hear from Landon within the last couple of hours, have you?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.

"Aren't you guys, like, not talking?" Jess asked, skeptical. "I can't tell you that."

"Jess, this is serious," I urged. "Something happened. I'm here with his sister and we can't find him."

"Wait, what?" Jess asked, sounding alarmed. "What happened?"

I didn't want to get into it with her. I had no idea how much Landon had actually told her about his life and I wasn't about to be the one to explain it all to her.

"Look, he's hurt and missing," I said as calmly as possible. "I need to know if you've talked to him."

"All he said was that something was going on at home and he needed a ride," Jess explained. "Chris Rojas from the hockey team let him borrow his car."