Not Far (Completed)

The News

THE NEWS

Beverley paced around her kitchen with sweaty palms. It was 3:28 the next day. Two minutes until the detective showed up at her door. Two minutes until her child was officially missing. She felt like she could barley breathe.

A minute later, there was a knock at her door. She quickly ran to it and swung it open. A man stood there in uniform. He was tall with short brown hair and brown eyes.

"Ms. Meyers?" The detective said. Beverley nodded. She couldn't speak. "I'm detective Daniel Lockwood." He showed her his badge. Beverley couldn't wait any longer.

"Where's my son?" She nearly shouted.

"Unfortunately, we still haven't located your child. We sent out our best squads to search, but no luck yet. I'm sorry. Ezra will be reported a missing child effective one minute. We will make this public with your permission. Hopefully people will recognize him and have possible information of where he could be." Detective Lockwood stuck his badge back in his pocket and held out a clipboard and pen. "Sign here to give us permission to publicly report this."

Beverley felt her eyes tear up. This couldn't be happening. In any event, she had to do this. She had to find her son. "Okay." She took the clipboard and signed on the line a very sloppy signature. Detective Lockwood nodded and took back the clipboard.

"We will be calling with updates and make some posters right away." He said.

"What do I do now?" Beverley asked desperately. Detective Lockwood turned around and stared at her for a moment with a soft look.

"Just wait. We will find him. I promise."

Beverley breathed deeply and nodded.

A few days passed, and Beverley received three calls with updates. Each one saying they hadn't found Ezra. A thought crossed her mind. A terrible, terrible thought. Maybe her son was...dead. But she pushed away that thought. There was no way that way true. He was still out there.

Early Sunday morning, Beverley received a call. From Detective Lockwood.

"Hello?" Beverley said eagerly.

"Hi, Ms. Meyers. This is Detective Lockwood. I'm calling with some information concerning your son." He said in a serious tone.

"What? What is it?" Beverley sat up from her slouched position on the couch.

"We received a call from the hairdresser at Lovely Locks, a woman named Roxanne, and she said she thinks she saw Ezra outside of the shop."

"What?"

"She says she ran outside to find him, but he was gone."

"I-" Beverley was at a loss for words. So, he was alive. He was okay. But he still wasn't home. "So what now? Did they find him? Is he okay?"

"We are looking very hard, and we think we are close. Just hang in there, and I will call as soon as I know anything else." He said. Beverley sighed an aggravated sigh. This was going nowhere. And it wasn't.

A few days later, she received a call from Detective Lockwood again saying they found the boy that Roxanne had seen. It wasn't Ezra. She had mistaken him for Ezra, and they still had nothing. They were back to square one.

Days had passed. Nothing. Days turned into weeks. Nothing. Weeks turned into months. Nothing. Beverley was beginning to lose hope. 

She started to replace that hope with alcohol. Drinking in the morning, the afternoon, at night. She couldn't think of any other way to ease the pain she was feeling. The worry.

She received letters in the mail, and texts from people she barley knew, saying how sorry they were. Telling her not to lose hope. That they knew Ezra was still out there. They didn't know that. Beverley didn't know that. She didn't know what to think.