Six weeks away

Chapter One

Six weeks later:

Johanna walked down the street to Mr. Longs' house. He was Aria's grandfather and who she had been living with since she was seven years old when her mother died. Mr. Longs used to be one of the nicest men in town, but after the death of both his wife and his daughter, who was Aria's mother, he had not been the same. Poor old Mr. Longs had taken up drinking and was constantly drunk. Her mother would have rolled over in her grave if she knew that her only daughter was living with just the kind of person she was trying to keep her from living with when she divorced her father.

All he did now a days was sit on the couch and yell drunkenly at his television,with beer cans surrounding him and covering his couch. During the six weeks that Aria had been gone he had made no attempt to search for her, just like the local police who he had refused to file a missing person's report with.

Every day Johanna would try to talk to him, question him about what had happened on the night Aria had disappeared, try to figure out anything she could. Every day she failed. She was always left standing on the stoop of his house with her mind still absorbing his angry shouting and the door being slammed in her face.

Mr. Longs left her with the same failure again today. He did this to everyone who attempted to interrogate him. Everyone knew something was up, but they knew Mr. Longs wasn't going to say anything.

When she tried to ask the neighbors she got the same response every time. They heard shouting like they had every night for the last few months, but they had not seen anything. She knew that she would not get anymore than that from the old couple, and she knew that if she kept asking they would get annoyed, so she stopped asking.

Johanna had been best friends with Aria since she had moved into town when she was seven years old, but now she couldn't imagine life without her.

The days of standing on the stoop were getting cold, just like Johanna's hope of finding her best friend again.