C Box - Below Zero

He was jarred. “You said April. You said her name. Not ‘whoever was contacting us’ or whatever.”

She returned the carafe to the coffeemaker. When she sat back down she said, “It’s her, Joe.”

He shook his head.

“You can decide for yourself, then,” she said, plucking Sheridan’s phone from the table and opening it up.

As she scrolled through the menu Joe said, “Two thousand text messages? How is that possible?”

Marybeth smiled. “Where have you been, Joe? Teenagers don’t talk. They text.”

“But two thousand? In a month? That’s crazy.”

She shrugged.

He did a quick calculation. “That’s nearly seventy texts a day. I don’t think I’ve sent that many in my life, I don’t think.”

“Are you through?”

“So this isn’t unusual?” he asked, thinking that the more time he spent away from his family, the more removed he was becoming from the day-to-day. He didn’t like the way it was going. He vowed to see the governor and either be reassigned back home or have to quit. Sheridan’s and Lucy’s lives were streaking past him, and at this rate he would someday look up and realize they were gone and he’d missed it. Sheridan was seventeen! Lucy was in middle school. In the blink of an eye, they’d be gone if he didn’t reconcile his situation.

Marybeth said, “Not at all. In fact, and I hate to tell you this, I’ve talked to other mothers and two thousand text messages in a month is actually quite low.”

He whistled.

“Anyway,” she said, scrolling, “Here it is. The first text came in at eleven-eighteen last night. Sheridan was in bed but she heard her phone chime. Remember, we told her to keep her phone on.”

She handed the phone to Joe, showed him how to scroll up through the thread:

From: AK

Sherry, is this U? I got your # from a dude named Jason at the old house. U R not gonna believe who this is. Reply by txt but DON’T CALL. DO NOT CALL.

ak

CB: 307-220-5038

Aug 24, 11:18 pm

Erase REPLY Options

He read it three times. “No way,” he said. “It’s a joke.”

“That’s when Sheridan came out and got me,” Marybeth said. “We sat down together on the couch and had a cry. Sheridan was beside herself, and she wasn’t sure what to answer or even if she wanted to. But we decided she should answer it for no other reason than to draw her out, to see if she-or he, or whoever-would reveal herself more.”

Joe noted the callback number with a Wyoming area code, as well as the exact time and date of the call. He wondered if text messages could be traced like calls could be.

“Scroll up,” she said. Joe did.

Sheridan replied:

From: Falconette

I give. Who RU?

sp

CB: 307-240-4977

Aug 24, 11:32 pm

Erase REPLY Options

Joe said, “Falconette?”

“It’s her user name, I guess.”

“Blame Nate,” Joe said. Nate Romanowski had taken Sheridan as his apprentice in falconry years before. The lessons had been stop/ start, but she’d embraced the cruel and beautiful art of falconry and Nate called her a natural. Since Nate had escaped federal custody a year ago, their lessons had ceased, but Sheridan continued to study up on the sport through books and falconry Internet forums.

“I wonder why she doesn’t want Sheridan to call her?” Joe said.

“Read on,” Marybeth said.

sherry, this is april. remember me?

You can’t be. Come on, who is this?

april Keeley no shit.

april’s gone. i’m gonna turn this phone off.

this is no joke. ive been away a long time but ya its me.

is this jason? this is NOT funny i’m gonna block yr #.

i don’t know jason.

then who R U really?

I told you april.

prove it.

ok. yr 17. yr birthday is May 5. lucy is 12. birthday december 8. howz that?

Joe felt a flutter in his stomach and looked up at Marybeth.

Said Marybeth, looking into the living room as if placing herself back there, “Imagine Sheridan and me sitting on the couch when that came up, the birthdays. Sheridan looked at me with tears in her eyes. We both wanted to believe, but at the same time we didn’t. I can’t remember ever feeling quite like that before. Remember what it was like when we lost April, Joe? My God, those days are still a blur, like being in a car wreck where your mind blots the worst parts out so you won’t go crazy recalling the details. And it all came back to me last night-cleaning out her bedroom, the funeral, relearning to say ‘the two girls’ instead of ‘the three girls,’ setting one less place at the table.”

Her words rushed out. “The mom in me wanted to believe, but I didn’t dare allow myself to do it yet. But Joe, I did. And I do. It’s like God is giving us a second chance with that poor girl, and I just want to believe even though it doesn’t make any logical sense. I wasn’t sure what to say to Sheridan.”

Joe reached across the table and took her hand. She turned her head, fighting tears.

“Anyone could find out their birthdays,” Joe said. “It just means whoever this is has done some homework. I mean, can’t anybody get this kind of stuff from MySpace or Facebook or someplace like that? Any kid in their school could know this stuff. After all, it’s a Wyoming phone number. It’s probably somebody local.”

“That thought crossed my mind,” Marybeth said, nodding toward the phone. “But we’re just getting started.”

Joe took a deep breath and continued.

tell me something only april would know.

ok. u used to scare me & luce by saying there was a witch in the closet.

Luce for Lucy. Only April called her that. Just as she called Sheridan Sherry.

“What’s this about?” Joe asked, his mouth dry.

Marybeth said, “I asked Sheridan. Remember when Lucy and April used to share the same bedroom? For a while-I think it was the November before we lost April-they started asking me to get specific clothes for them to wear in the morning. I remember questioning them why they couldn’t get the clothes themselves and they’d just look at each other and neither would tell me why. I knew something was going on but I didn’t know what. It wasn’t a big deal, and I’d forgotten about it. But now I find out it’s because Sheridan told them there was a witch in the closet and that was the reason she moved out of the bedroom and gave it to them. Sheridan also told them that the witch would stay in the closet and not come out to get them unless either they opened the doors or they told anyone about her. That’s why they were so secretive.”

“That was mean,” Joe said, frowning.

Marybeth shrugged. “It was mean, yes. But its what big sisters do to little sisters. And Joe, Lucy’s never told me about it to this day. So how could anyone know about it except April?”

“Sheridan or Lucy probably told someone in school about the witch in the closet,” Joe said, warming to his schoolmate theory. “Hey-we’ve been thinking this was someone Sheridan knows. But maybe it’s someone Lucy knows?”

Marybeth’s lack of response was her signal for him to keep reading.

tell me something else only april would know.

how about the 3 trees? 1 for each of us. r the trees still there? do U still have Maxine? Is lucy still pretty?

the trees are still there. but maxine died. lucy thinks she’s pretty. she is I guess.

that makes me sad about maxine.

me too. I miss her.

howis yr mom?

she’s great.

hows yr dad?

he’s great. he’s gone a lot.

Joe cringed and tried to swallow. No luck.

is lucy there now?

she’s sleeping.

wake her up. I wanna say hi.

just talk 2 me now.

ok.

Where r u?

“At this point,” Marybeth said, “Sheridan is pretty sure she’s texting back and forth with April. I am, too. But Joe, it just can’t be, can it?”