A Score & A Decade

Chapter 4

Italics: Mrs Rodney; Normal: Zoe 

"It was November 4th, 1989. A Saturday. She had gone about all her daily activities as usual -"

"You have to be a bit more specific ma'am. What did she do? What did she eat? What did she say? I know it's been 30 years, but even if you can remember a few things..."

"No, no, I remember everything. She woke up wearing blue pyjamas with teddy bears on them. Yes, those were her favourite. She came downstairs and had a glass of water. Her father then took her upstairs to help her brush her teeth. Oh, I remember how she would spill toothpaste all over herself!

She came down, had her breakfast - cereal - and then took a shower. I helped her into the same clothes that she was wearing when she disappeared."

"I don't think the description of the clothes she was wearing then would be of much use now. After all, she would now be wearing different clothes than what she was wearing 30 years ago."

"Alright. I was at home the entire time that day. I remember she watched some TV until I told her to stop because they would ruin her eyes. She played for some time with her toys until I called her for lunch. She had some grilled cheese and went to bed because she was feeling sleepy.

She woke up a few hours later with an urge to go to the park. How I wish I had said no! But I didn't. I took her to the park with her riding a bike. She ran to play with her friends in the park while I sat near on a bench talking to some of my friends."

"Friends? Do you remember their names?"

"Yes, of course. Jesse and Danny. Both were the same age as her and the three had been best friends. In fact, the friends I was talking to were their moms - Harrietta and Evelyn. The three kids would have play dates pretty often."

"Did anyone else go and talk to Roselle?"

"Yes. One of the older kids, Bill. He was seven, I think. He ran to her for a minute, said something to her, and ran away. That was the only other person I saw."

"Were your eyes on her the entire time?"

"No, there were two periods when I wasn't always looking at her. The first was when Evelyn said that there were new residents in the neighbourhood and that they were in the park. I was quite surprised as I hadn't known about new residents at all. She suggested that the three of us - that is, Evelyn, Harrietta, and I - go greet them. As we walked to them, I had my eye on Roselle, but the period of time where we talked to the residents was when I didn't have my eye on her."

"Who were these new residents?"

"William and Diana Park. They were a young couple with no children. They got divorced not two days after Roselle's disappearance and Diana moved out. I never found out what happened to William because we moved out only a couple of months later."

"So that was the first period. What was the second?"

"Oh, God. This was when she disappeared. There was a dress store next to the park and we could see the front of the store from our seat on the bench. Evelyn had gone off walking and Harrietta and I had turned toward the store and were admiring some dresses that they had put on display. 

We had been doing this for a few minutes when Jesse came up to her mom and asked if they could go home because playing alone with Danny wasn't fun. I asked Jesse what she meant and she said that Roselle had already gone home with her daddy. And suddenly I knew something was wrong because Eric had been in London for the past week and wasn't coming back till the next week. I stood up and searched the whole park for Roselle, shouting her name until finally I gave up and called the cops."

"Mrs Rodney, Roselle was four. Isn't that an age-old enough for a kid to recognize their parents?"

"I thought so too. I had taught her not to talk to strangers. But kids, you know, they're so innocent and so gullible. They'll believe anything if you say it earnestly..."