Kidnappers mistake

The promise

Working at the diner had become something that I tried to avoid. It used to be fun, I enjoyed working with the other waiters but now it was a reminder. The news was always playing, and like always the story was about the latest missing kid. The kidnappings had started over a month ago in the last month over a dozen kids had disappeared, and no matter how hard the police ( my dad included ) tried to prevent the kidnapping they kept occurring.

As my shift finally ended, I began to walk home. My dad gets mad that I walk, but we both knew it was the only way for me to get home, and I needed the job. So I walked home every day, and stopped bringing up the subject. On my walk home I picked up my younger brother Ethan from his babysitters house. He turns six years old tomorrow and I told him that we would make a cake tonight. Most families liked to surprise each other, but my mom said that the cake tastes better when we work together to make it. My dad quit helping when my mom died, but Ethan and I try to continue our mothers tradition.

My friends always comment that my brother and I look nothing alike, they would say that my mother had gotten to choose my name but that was all I had gotten from her. I had my dad's high cheek bones, slender face and auburn hair. Ethan got my mom's gray eyes, and her shy grin. My eyes are a mix of my mother's swirling blue and my father's seaweed green. My brothers looks weren't the only thing to remind me of my mother. When she died I began to cook because the kitchen reminded my father too much of her, the kitchen was always our place together. We would donate goodies just because we liked to cook them.

Tonight for dinner I was just gonna cook some spaghetti, so I could mix the cake batter while the noodles cooked.  Ethan and I made the cake, and it turned out perfect. It cooled in the fridge as we sat on the couch to eat our spaghetti. When I turned on the TV the news came on, and immediately I reached for the remote to change the channel. "Phebe, don't, we should watch to honor them. They deserve that atleast" I set down the remote knowing that he had a point. One by one the pictures of the missing kids filled the screen. I felt Ethan tense beside me,as the pictures were replaced by an urgent voice. The recording of the 911call made reporting one of the kidnapping. In a hysterical voice the mother told about how her daughter disappeared and she realized too late to follow.

"Phebe, you would come after me right, even if you didn't know where to go, would you try?" I could hear the fear in his  voice, even as his voice dropped to a whisper at the end. Truthfully I didn't know what to reply, yet I heard myself reassuring him that I would.

That night I felt haunted by his question, haunted by how comforted I was by my answers. The next morning when I  awoke the thought was forgotten. Ethan waited in the dinning room. He gave me a nod of acknowledgement as I entered the room. Thanks grabbed a carton of eggs and began to cry them, Ethan got up to toast bread, already familiar with the routine. Our Father had gotten home late the night before, so like always he would sleep in until after we left. He used to get up with us so he could see our mother before she left to work, now he doesn't.

As Ethan and I went outside to begin the walk to the bus stop, a couple of ethane friends came to walk with us. I told them I had forgotten something so I ran inside to write a note to my dad. I had been asked to work late tomorrow so the babysitter needed to be paid for extra hours, I was halfway through the note when one of Ethans friends slid through the door.

"E-ethan went with...he went with the man" the little boy took an eternity to say. Who knew that such few words could have such a huge impact on ones sanity.