"Mommy!"
"Hold on a minute!" Sighing, I grab another shirt out of the laundry basket, this one belonging to Darius. I fold it slowly, looking out the window at the gray sky. I grabbed another shirt, this one belonging to Rae. What was that doing in there? She'd been gone for almost four and half months. It must have been left in her hamper before she left, and Darius found it.
Rae. There hadn't been a letter from her in over three weeks. I was getting worried. Usually her letters only took four days to get here.
"Mommy!"
"I said I was coming, Cordell!" I lifted myself of my seat, shoving the laundry basket aside. As I walked toward the stairs, something caught my attention and I froze. I'd heard the woman on the news say "The Maxxam Planet Trials" and I grabbed the remote, turning up the volume. I always liked to pay attention to news from Maxxam, Rae living there and all.
"Vonda, Cordell wants your help finding his tablet!"
"I know, Darius! Hold on!" God, the kid got his tablet brand new yesterday and he's already misplaced it.
"Officials have said that many citizens of Maxxam have gone missing recently. Nearly half of the population is unaccounted for. The earliest reported case of a missing person was exactly a week ago, the most recent, merely an hour."
I felt my heart beat picking up, my palms beginning to sweat. Worry for Rae coursed through my veins.
"Obviously, with such a mass number of people, we cannot mention all of the missing right now. However we will upload the name of every person that has been classified as missing on our website. You can find this information by going to our website, clicking the tab that says 'Maxxam Planet News,' and finally by clicking 'Maxxam's Missing.'"
Tablet, my tablet! My eyes dart around the room, searching for the electronic device. I grab my tablet, frantically following the reporter's instructions. "Maxxam Planet News, Maxxam's Missing," I mutter under my breath. A huge list of names occupy the screen. It appears to be alphabetical order.
"MOMMY!"
"JUST A MINUTE!"
Great, I think. The last name Zenon is not exactly ideal in a situation like this. I scroll all the way down to Z...and there my worry becomes a reality. I practically drop my tablet onto the floor. My eyes squeeze shut, holding back tears. I'm shaking.
Because there, under Z, is the name Rae Zenon. And displayed next to it, a picture of my teenage daughter.
