Chapter 19
Roloff was glad for his solitary evening walk after his meeting. It was very dark outside, which was soothing to him. He had found the agenda irritating this night. There was a small feud between two families in town, regarding fence repairs. Roloff found these things the least appealing aspect of his mayoral duties. He knew that he would be spending countless hours talking to the families. If it was really all about the fence, it would be easier to just go and repair it himself. But, he suspected that this was just the manifestation—the tip of the iceberg.
Rapid footsteps up ahead interrupted his thoughts. “Hello?” he called.
“Father!—is that you, Father?”
“Caryell?”
“Father, Mother is in trouble!” Caryell was running, and had just come into view.
“What’s wrong?—where is she?”
“I don’t know! You must come at once, she’s missing! I’ve been looking for her—for the past hour—but she is missing!”
“Perhaps she has been on a visit.”
“No, Father; we were both at home, Mother heard something in the woods; she went out to the woods with the lantern. I heard her yell my name from the woods. I went out to see her. I could see her lantern light in the woods. I called after her, but didn’t hear anything. The next thing I saw was the lantern getting thrown. So I started to run. I found the lantern on the ground, and I picked it up. I kept calling for mother, but I didn’t hear anything. As I was looking around I found a deer down. It didn’t look hurt. But it was sleeping, and wouldn’t wake up—even when I nudged it. Father, I looked everywhere that I could think, and I kept calling for her, but nothing. So that is when I ran to find you. I am so sorry!”
“Caryell, go to Seryen now. Tell him what you have told me, and ask him to get a search party together. I will meet you and the party in the woods near our home.”
The boy ran down the path, and soon disappeared from sight. Roloff wanted to run and get to Aspiria as quickly as possible. But first he dropped to his knees. He began to pray. He prayed harder than he had ever prayed in his life. Roloff prayed regularly. He led his family in prayer. He prayed for his family, his friends, and neighbors. He prayed for his community. But now his prayer was filled with deep humility. He put this in God’s hands. He knew that something had happened to Aspiria, and he feared that he would not be able to help her on his own. He then got up and ran.
He first stopped at his home and ran inside.
“Aspiria!” he shouted. No answer. He looked in the room. He quickly ran through every room. He then went into the woods. The deer was still down. He felt the animal. It was alive, but in a deep sleep. There was no visible wound, or injury. But he could see by the deer’s tracks—through his lantern’s illumination—that the animal had been running and then fell abruptly. He quickly found other tracks. Aspiria’s footprints were not hard to discover. They led up to the deer, and then she had fallen herself. There were other tracks, also. Perhaps they were men’s footprints. There were several of them; the evidence showed that they had been near the deer. A few indentations lead up to some trees that were nearest to his home. They may have been watching his home. Many tracks indicated walking, but then four sets led away—clearly at a run. One set was deeper, it was from someone heavier—perhaps this one was carrying something—perhaps carrying Aspiria. Caryell’s footprints were everywhere. The poor boy, he didn’t know what to do, but he was trying desperately to help his mother.
Roloff knew that he needed to follow the running footprints that let away into the dark. But he didn’t want to be too far away when the search party came. He didn’t want them worrying about him. He wanted all efforts to be on Aspiria. But he was concerned that the town would be coming to help, and he would be showing them the tracks of the men that had taken Aspiria. He worried about what a panic could be created by this. This town had been as safe from harm as any place could be. When bad things happened, they were mistakes, or acts of God. Malicious behavior was heard about from the city, occasionally, but it had never been seen in this town before. Roloff knelt by the deer, and offered another prayer, this time for inspiration. He wanted to know if he should follow the tracks, likely well over an hour old, or if he should meet the party and follow the trail together with the search party. He felt that he should wait for the party.
