Vanishing

5.

Brody

Present Day

Apparently showing up on a flight drunk is frowned upon. However, you can get drunk on a plane. Explain that to me please.

I sink into my window seat and try to catch some z's before the flight lands. Sober up a bit. My legs are itching to move but I force them still. A nervous tell I have always had.

When I close my eyes, I see Cynthia. White, blonde hair, emerald, green eyes, and a perfect megawatt smile. She was always so happy and kind. A force to be reckoned with.

I spent the first fifteen years of my life entranced with my sister. She was a God among men. I cannot think of a single person that felt ill towards her. That is what sealed the runaway vision the police had.

Obviously, somebody wanted to hurt her though. Cynthia was by no means a survivalist. Unless she had an arsenal of help the runaway version does not add up. No, something terrible happened to her.

Sighing, I force her away so I can try to have a proper nap. The turbulence helps sway me to sleep. Only to be met with another ghost all together. Lindsey.

I fucked that one up royally. I can pinpoint exactly where things have gone wrong. As soon as I stuck my lipstick in someone besides my girlfriend of three years.

Lindsey and I grew up down the road from each other and it did not hurt that she was one of Cynthias best friends. It sorts of cemented what was supposed to be, I guess.

Long flowing black hair, tan skin, legs that went for miles and twinkling blue eyes. She was every bit as opposite of my blonde-haired green-eyed genes.

I do not have an excuse for stepping out on her, I was simply young, and it was exhilarating. Charlotte Dempsey was a loner. Beautiful and curvaceous. A mystery wrapped in an untouchable box. If you will.

The sex was not half as good as with Lindsey, but she gave good head and at the age of fifteen that meant something to me. I was an idiot though and in one foul swoop, in one night, everything I thought I had was gone.

I think about Lindsey as much as I think about Cynthia. My world had revolved around them both my entire life and when they both left my life, one by choice and one not, I felt hard.

Lindsey moved away, being pulled from school shortly after that night and changed her number. It was as if the world was against me.

In my dreams it is the only place on earth I can reach her, so I cling to it all the way to the plane touching down in Maine.