6

“Coffee?”

“Yeah. I mean, I did skip school and came looking for you the first chance I got. Coach’s gonna give me hell tomorrow for skipping practice.”

“Coach? Practice? School? What about the fact that you turned into a wolf last night?” I asked, aghast.

“Well, I was hoping to clear things up if you let me take you out for coffee,” Brandon said, gleaming.

“Are you literally asking me out right now after I had the worst night of my life?” I couldn’t even take it. My hands were up to my face, my eyes were rolling in their sockets. The absolute nerve of this guy.

“It’s a good coffee place.”

“Fine. Fine. If that gets you out of my house. Fine. I’ll go out with you. You happy?”

“I am,” Brandon said softly. “Knowing that you are safe. The boat was just an excuse. I came to check up on you. Last night was rough, I’ll give you that. We met in the weirdest of circumstances. I’d like a redo. A normal version of us meeting. For coffee. Does that make sense?”

“Weirdly, it does,” I said. The smooth son of a bitch had just disarmed me and there was nothing I could do about it. Now that I’d calmed down a bit, I couldn’t help but notice how fresh he smelled. There was a glow on his face, too. The kind that came with elation, not with men’s facial cream. “All right, fine. When?”

“Rapid Falls has this amazing coffee place called Espresso Lounge. How about I pick you up in the afternoon?”

“How about I drive up there? I’ve got some errands to run in town anyway,” I said. “And look at me. I’m a mess right now. Let me take a bath, brush my teeth, put some makeup on, and wear something that’s not my pajamas.”

“It’s a date,” Brandon said, still gleaming.

“Don’t get cocky,” I said, closing the door on his face. When I was sure that he couldn’t see me, I broke into a smile myself. A date with Brandon Caufield? Jesus Christ.

There was another knock on the door, this time a softer knock.

I opened it again. It was still Brandon.

“I nearly forgot about the boat. Where is it?”

“Oh, right. It’s parked by the bank, tied to a tree,” I said, distractedly.

“See you when I see you, Alice Hawkins,” Brandon winked at me, and disappeared behind my house.

I headed to the kitchen to read what my mom had left on the fridge.

The note on the fridge said: “Baby, I’m headed to Chicago with Elma to pick up the rest of our stuff. There’s lasagna in the fridge and coleslaw salad from yesterday. Make sure you go to school! Xoxo”

Near-death events tend to do a number on your hunger. I fixed some cereal for myself, though, feeling guilty that I’d not gone to school. I felt fearful about the wolves that I’d run into and how I’d come across Estelle’s dead body. There was only one thing that I could do to take my mind off things.

While still sitting on the kitchen isle, half-heartedly chewing down my Cheerios, I clicked away on the keys of my laptop. I knew it was futile. I knew that after a decade of searching for my dad, he wouldn’t just show up on the internet out of nowhere. Still, I tried. You never knew what you’d end up finding. After all, it was the internet.

Dad’s disappearance had been sudden and without warning. I was eight. That’s all I could remember about him disappearing. It was my eighth birthday and I’d been waiting for him to come back from work. He had promised me, mom, and Elma that he’d take us to Long John Silver’s for a family birthday dinner.

I’d been sitting on the living room sofa, my birthday cap on my head, a streamer in my little hands. My mom was in the kitchen, baking me a cake. Elma was far too young to be doing anything. She was in the cot, playing with a Buzz Lightyear action figure. Any minute now, dad was supposed to come back.

Except that he didn’t.

He never got back in touch with any of us.

The police couldn’t find him anywhere in or near Chicago.

Whenever I asked Mom about it, she would confront me angrily, telling me that she had no idea where my dad was.

When I discovered the internet in my teens, the first thing I searched was “Briar Hawkins.”

The only couple of results that showed up back then were about him graduating from his alma mater and how he had won a basketball scholarship to Berkeley. Nothing about his disappearance. Nothing about him going missing. That didn’t stop me, however. I searched for him every day, just as I was doing today.

“Where are you, Dad?” I whispered. “I really need you right now.”

Radio silence on the dad front, just as it had been for the last ten years. What was I expecting? That he’d show up out of the blue and provide a plausible explanation for why he’d ran, leaving my mom to raise her two daughters all by herself?

I wiped the tears off my face and headed up to my room to get ready for a day’s worth of errands in the town and my date with Brandon.

4

Brandon

For a coffee shop, Espresso Lounge was a hell of an exclusive place. Getting a table here was no joke. At any given time, the café was packed with people who wanted a good cup of joe while enjoying the pristine display of nature in the form of the Rapid Hills, the Rapid River, and the dense forest that surrounded Rapid Falls from all sides.

I had an in with the Gallaghers who ran the place. Their son, Ernie, was on my football team. He wouldn’t have been there if I hadn’t recommended him. Ernie’s dad, Philip, had given me a pat on the back and had whispered in my ear that he owed me a solid the day Ernie made it on the team.

Well, Mr. Philip, it’s time I cashed the favor.

The downside to living in a small town such as Rapid Falls was there were only a handful of nice places such as the lounge. All the PTA moms, the businessmen on their corporate lunches, and every couple in the early stages of their relationship were found here.

Even where I sat on the patio, a twenty-something couple sat kissing each other, completely ignoring their coffees going cold. I’d chosen this place because it gave me a view of the road. It’d allow me to keep an eye out for Alice.