Strip

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I couldn't check on James after school, because I had to go straight to McDonald's (I really couldn't be late again, or I would defiantly get fired). I tried to call James at home, which I sometimes did, but there was no answer. Thinking that he must be at Mrs. Copper's house, I considered calling her, but she had blocked my number a while ago, and no matter how many times I told her she had to unblock me in case of emergency, she wouldn't budge.

I made me a little fidgety not being able to contact James. I worried about him more than I should, but I think after everything that both of us had been through, I had a right to.

I got home around 6:30, giving me a whole glorious 3 hours to do my overdue homework, and eat dinner with James. Before going to my apartment, I knocked on Mrs. Copper's door to see if James was actually there.

"What?" Mrs. Copper asked grumpily, opening the door after my 4th time knocking.

"Is James here?"

"What?"

"Is James here!" I asked a little louder.

"Why would he be here?"

"You mean.... he isn't?"

"Of course not! I don't watch him on Wednesdays, you know it's my bridge night!"

"Then why aren't you at bridge?" I said glancing over her same old pink robe.

"I don't need to explain myself to you," She said, and slammed the door in my face.

Ignoring her rude remarks, I started panicking. If James wasn't with Mrs. Copper, and he wasn't in the apartment, then where was he? Images of kidnappings, and every story I had ever read about pedophiles in ice cream trucks went racing through my head. 

I started sprinting upstairs to drop off my stuff. I was a little out of breath when I got there, and struggled to jam my key into the hole. I got it in and was about to unlock it, when I heard 6 year old giggles from behind the door.

Confused, I opened the door, and let out a huge sigh of relief. James was sitting on the kitchen floor, with toilet paper wrapped around his head. Ignoring the toilet paper face, I let out a little yelp and reached down' to scoop him up in my arms.

"Uh... Hi Molly," James said awkwardly through all the toilet paper.

"Thank god you're here," I said, putting him down. "Why didn't you answer the-"

I suddenly noticed a girl who seemed to be James's age, with dirty blond hair, standing on the other side of the room, clutching what seemed to be a lady bug stuffed animal to her chest.

"Um... James, who is this?" I asked. The girl stared at me with her big green eyes, batting her dark eyelashes.

"Oh, that's Isabelle," James said. 

"Ok." The girl continued to stare. "Why is Isabelle here?"

"Oh, we're on a play date!" James said, his voice bubbling with excitement. He turned to Isabelle. "By the way, this is my sister Molly."

"Hi," I said weakly.

Now that we were introduced, Isabelle had no problem running up to me as fast as she could, and latching onto my leg. "Hi Molly!" She said, much to loud.

"Hi," I said again. "Can you let go of my leg?"

Isabelle didn't seem to hear/register/ care about what I had just said, and continued to cling to me.

"James," I said. "How did Isabelle get here?"

"We walked home from school together," He said. "We have the same teacher. Miss Ravory. Oh, that reminds me, parent teacher conference are tomorrow."

I cringed. "Dammit," I said, then looked down at Isabelle. She seemed to still be in her little Isabelle world, so I went back to talking to James.

"We'll talk about parent teacher conferences later. But right now, I need to know if Isabelle's parents know where she is."

James opened his mouth. Then closed it.

"James."

Open it again. But no words.

"James!"

"We forgot about that part," James mumbled.

"Oh god, I've technically captured someone's 6 year old," I said. I frantically shook Isabelle of my leg, and bent down to look her in the eye.

"Isabelle," I said. "This is very important. Do you know your parents phone number?"

Silence.

"Isabelle?"

"Uh... No. Can James and I play now?" She started to head back for the stuffed animal she had left on the other side of the room.

"Not right now Isabelle, right now, I really really need you to try to remember your parents phone number. Ok? Can you do that?"

Isabelle scrunched up her face as if she was working really hard to think.

"No," She said after a minute.

"Oh god," I said, putting my head in my hands. Isabelle ran back over to her stuffed animal.

"Ok, Isabelle," I said. "What's your last name."

"Smith," She said.

"Uh, ok, Smith, that's an easy last name. What's your mommy's name?"

"Mary."

"Mary Smith. Ok, nice and easy. Now we're going to play a game ok? You need to find a really thick book, and I know it's somewhere in the apartment, but I don't know where it is, so can you guys help me find it?"

"Ok!" James chimed, and grabbed Isabelle's hand. I frantically started searching the kitchen for my phone book, and kept searching for 15 minutes, until Isabelle and James came in. James looked like he was really struggling to hold it.

"Yes! That's it!" I said, grabbing it from him.

"We found it in-"

"Can you tell me later James?" I asked, flipping the book open. I searched and searched, until I found 'Smith' and kept going to 'Mary'.

There was just one problem.

There had to be at least 100 Mary Smith's in that book.

---

Hi there!

Thank you for reading! If you liked it, please vote, comment, and follow me! (I'm looking at you Iris)

Ok, that will be the last message to Iris.

Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes!

Thanks again!

XOX