The Sky is Falling

Chapter Five - Elliott Moore

"I'm sifting through sand, looking for pieces of broken hourglass, trying to get it all back, put it back together"

Saturday, May 23rd

9 A.M.

When I woke up today, I grabbed my phone to call Zach out of habit. I'm about to hit the call button when it hits me. Oh, right. He totally gave me the heave-ho yesterday, and now he's "nowhere to be found." Figures. Probably crashed at some girl's house and ditched school. I was going to call him because we always practice for our band on Saturdays. I play the electric guitar and sing, and he plays the drums. We're pretty good, to be honest. We can never think of any original songs, so we just cover our favorite songs and play them at local gigs.

But since he dropped me, I guess we'll just have to skip practice today.

I go downstairs to eat breakfast. My little brother, Raphael is sitting on the floor eating Lucky Charms, meticulously picking out the marshmallows and not eating the cereal. He's glued to the T.V. screen watching that Planet Sheen. When I was little, Mom and Dad were way more strict. Now they just let him do whatever he wants.

I walk into the kitchen and am surprised to see Dad. Usually, he's always away for work. "Hey, Dad," I say. He turns around, startled. He quickly purses his lips into a thin, flat, obligatory grin, and goes back to his phone; texting someone with a furrowed brow. Mom asks who he's been texting all morning, and he says some coworker named Clyde.

My mother questions my mildly black eye. I just tell her that I fell off my bike. I don't want her worrying about me. I already wore a flannel and jeans today to cover the bruises on the rest of my body. Which isn't exactly ideal for late May.

They were at the grocery store when Reagan's parents dropped me off last night. Brooks Levine has been bullying me since grade school. Austin Campbell always follows him around, but never really does anything.

I eat my cereal until my mom briskly walks in with the newspaper.

"Elliott, isn't that your friend?" she asks.

I grab the paper off the counter and do a double-take. Holy crap. I almost choke on my Fruity Pebbles. The headline states:

Have you Seen Me? Missing Person: Zachary Baker

I sit there, frozen in shock, as I stare at the newspaper article in front of me. The words blur together as my mind struggles to process what I'm seeing. My best friend's face staring back at me, a grainy black-and-white image that seems to pulse with a sense of urgency.

The article says he's officially been reported as missing by the police and he's the second missing person this week. They're not sure what's causing it, but they're looking into it.

"Are you O.K., Elliott?" my mom asks. "You look awfully pale."

I snap back to reality. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm..." I trail off and stare at my cereal, a wave of nausea washing over me.

"I'm so sorry, honey. I know how close you two are!" my mother sympathizes. My dad stays silent. "Oh, isn't this just terrible, David?" His head snaps up.

"Huh? Oh... yeah. Sorry, kid. ...Shame," he says and looks back down at his phone.

His stupid words echo through my mind like a cruel joke. Shame? Is he even paying attention? Is anyone paying attention?

"David, would you get off of that phone! Elliott's friend is missing!"

"I heard!" he snaps. "Jesus, Amanda calm down! There's nothing we can do about it! Those never turn out to be anything anyway." He pinches the bridge of his nose and continues staring at his cellphone.