Baptist Hospital
Pensacola, Florida
Taylor still had three more hours of her shift, and she was exhausted. She’d spent most of the night missing Will and battling with herself. After having such a great day yesterday, how was she supposed to tell Jason they should take a break? And right before Christmas?
She was almost grateful to have four long days at the hospital. She could avoid talking to him. He was good about letting her have alone time. Letting her call when she felt like talking or getting together.
The unit secretary waved her down, holding up the telephone receiver.
“Taylor, call for you.” She kept her hand over the mouthpiece as she handed it to her. “Your mother-in-law.”
“It’s super busy today. Tell her I’ll call her back.”
She shook her head. “I tried that. She’s pretty upset.”
Her first thought was that Will must have told her about their day at the beach with Jason. Taylor took the phone. Restrained herself from rolling her eyes or even sighing.
“Dora, I’m on duty. Can’t this wait until later?”
“What did you do with him?”
“Who? What are you talking about?” Before Dora could answer, Taylor felt a shiver down her spine.
“You took him! Where is he?”
“Dora, I’m at the hospital. What are you talking about?”
“Willie didn’t come home from school. I know you have him.”
“What do you mean, he didn’t come home?” She twisted around to see the wall clock above the unit counter. He should have gotten home about an hour ago.
“I called. They said he didn’t show up for school this morning.”
“How is that possible? Why didn’t they call?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know. Where is he? What did you do with him? I swear I’ll have you arrested. If you think—”
Taylor dropped the phone on the counter. Without a word, she went to the cabinet underneath the main desk. Punched in a code and retrieved her belongings. Immediately, she checked her cell phone for messages.
“Everything okay?” the unit secretary asked.
“I have to leave.”
“What do you mean, leave? You can’t just leave.”
“My son is missing.”
She didn’t wait for a reaction. She left the area and walked down the hallway without looking back. The elevator opened just as she got to it. Taylor barely saw the couple exiting as she entered and tapped the button. Before the doors squeezed closed, she could see the unit secretary gesturing to someone and pointing at her. They were a slice of motion. And then they were gone.
She arrived at her car, fumbling with the key fob, sunlight blinding her. She wasn’t even sure how she had gotten all the way through the hospital and through the parking lot when she didn’t remember exiting the elevator.
All she could focus on were Dora’s words. “He didn’t show up for school this morning.”
And she remembered Will’s words: “What if I don’t go back?”
Could he have run away? Was that even possible?
He was only seven years old. He wasn’t even allowed to ride his bicycle across the highway to play with his friends from school. The bus picked him up at the entrance to their housing development. What was that? Two blocks? Maybe three?
He’d been so happy this weekend. They laughed. Had a great time with Jason yesterday, sharing his drawings with a new superhero. He talked a mile a minute about sandpipers, the color orange and his favorite candy: Sour Patch Kids.
She shook her head, remembering it all in a flood of memories. Her wonderfully creative little boy ordinarily didn’t talk much and kept his head down with his fingers moving, sketching, coloring, creating masterpieces. Many of them, she only now realized, included the color orange.
They’d both been so happy...and then so miserable on the drive back.
Oh, my sweet, Will. What did you do?