We Find What Is Lost: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 1)

Chapter Forty-Six: Rachel, Summer-Fall, 1980

Al moved away. His statement about one more job for the LSDC had been a jinx, but it had taken nine months for the jinx to deliver. Still, Rachel felt destroyed. One of her dearest friends was gone, just a city over, but for her it might as well have been a million miles away.

It all started when Al told them his dad received an offer on their house by the government; apparently they wanted to build a road where their house was. Rachel had no idea that was how roads got built; she'd just assumed they were always there. Why did they have to knock down Al's house? Couldn't they just build around it?

After that it seemed to go incredibly fast. Al and his parents went for a drive to go look at new houses, and then one day he told them they found a house in Coquitlam. Then one day a big moving truck came to their house, and men in coveralls set about emptying it, and Rachel realized he was really going.

She found him in his yard, watching the process with tears rolling down his cheeks. She gave him a slip of paper with her phone number on it, just in case he didn't remember it, even though he'd written it on hundreds of copies of that ad they'd put in the papers two years ago. They'd never needed to phone each other, they'd just walked out their door and went to each other's house.

"Call me whenever you want," she said. "We'll stay in touch."

He nodded, but he was still crying, and Rachel's heart was breaking, for him and for herself. They'd never had a chance to explore what was behind that kiss she'd given him at the Trybek house. She knew he liked her, like-liked her, and she'd thought he might do something about it after she'd kissed him, but maybe he was just too young, too shy, too inexperienced to do anything where girls were concerned. She'd been relieved at first, because she wasn't ready either, but she was also sad, because now they had no time left to do anything about it.

She threw her arms around him, and he started sobbing, and she couldn't help sobbing either.

Suddenly she felt more arms around them, and she knew that Lauren, Joe and Sunny had arrived and joined in.

"I'm going to miss you guys," Al blubbered.

They all assured him they would miss him too, and gave him their phone numbers.

Throughout the day, their parents came by to give warm wishes to Al's mom and dad. Not her parents, thank goodness; they were both at work, and she was glad they wouldn't see their emotional farewell. Mrs. Anderson came with a gift basket of different foods so they didn't have to worry about making dinner on their first night in their new house.

The Lawrence Street Detective Club stayed with their outgoing member the entire time, and when his parents finally emerged after the final walk through, they group-hugged one last time, and Al, numb with grief, marched to the family car as if to his own execution. The station wagon that had driven Rachel, Lauren and him to school for a whole year was going to disappear from their lives, and Al with it.

Rachel put a hand on the window next to Al's head. "Call me!" she told him. "Tell me how the move went! Tell me about your room!"

He looked at her with wet, red, puffy eyes. "Okay," he said, voice muffled through the window.

Al's dad honked his horn to signal they were off. Rachel withdrew her hand and waved. "Bye! Bye, Al! Bye!"

He scooted to the back of the station wagon and looked through the rear window. She couldn't hear what he said next because he was too far away, but she could have sworn his mouth formed the words I love you.

The four remaining friends watched the car and the moving van until they turned left on their way to the bridge. When they were gone from sight, Rachel broke down again, and Lauren hugged her, and Joe hugged them both, and then Sunny.