What Passes For Normal

Chapter 29

Nana Guza finished her little glass of brandy, got up and washed it then put it in the drying rack next to the sink. She said goodnight to everyone, patted Teddy on the shoulder, saying, "You find that girl, OK?" then shuffled away to get ready for bed.

Not long after that, Jello's father Tonio said goodnight to the boys and then said a few things to Uncle Joe before leaving the kitchen. Tereza got up to make a pot of coffee. It was nearly 11:00 and the boys and Uncle Joe weren't going to bed anytime soon.

Teddy had been talking for a long time, recounting everything he could about Darwin, Kodi, Bryn and any other detail that might be remotely relevant. Uncle Joe had been taking notes in a spiral-bound notebook the entire time, filling its pages with blue-ink handwriting. He kept returning to one page that had a sort of mind map—words inside different-sized ovals connected with a dense web of lines and arrows and all surrounding the largest oval in the centre containing the word "Darwin".

This was one of the most miserable and exhausting days Teddy could ever remember. He felt like his mind really was that page in Joe's notebook, a jumble of meandering lines all centring on where Darwin was supposed to be, but that place was just empty space. Darwin wasn't there. He was grateful for everyone's help, but the day was almost over and he was no closer to finding her.

His phone rang and it made everyone jump. Was it Darwin calling?

"It's my mom," Teddy said, putting the phone to his ear.

"Teddy!" said Neea, sounding panicked. "What's going on? Where's Darwin? I just got a phone call. It said it was Peter's phone but it wasn't Peter, it was another man. A young man. He said they had Darwin and they wanted the money! I'm so worried Ted! What money? What's happening?"

"Oh god," said Teddy. "It's true, Mom. I'm so sorry..."

"What's true? What's happened?"

"I'm pretty sure it's Kodi. They kidnapped Darwin... but wait, he actually called you?"

"What?" whispered Byron loudly. Teddy nodded and Uncle Joe madly wrote in his notebook.

"Yes, he called. Oh my god! Darwin! This is horrible!" Neea began to cry.

"OK, Mom, calm down. We're going to find her, but back up a second. You said he called on Peter's phone?"

"What?" Byron whispered even louder.

"Well, it came up as a call from Peter, so I don't know how else that could happen. I said 'Hi Peter' and the man on the phone—Kodi, I guess it was—he just laughed and said he wasn't Peter."

"You're a hundred-percent sure it said the call was coming from Peter?"

"Who's Peter?" whispered Uncle Joe. Byron leaned over to quietly explain.

"Yes, definitely," Neea said. "God, Ted, do the police know? Did you call them?"

"Yeah they know, Mom. They're working on it. So what else did the guy say?"

"He just said that I shouldn't try anything stupid, whatever that meant, and I should just give them the money and everything would be fine. I don't know what money he's talking about, do you?"

"Yeah," said Teddy. "It's a ransom, I guess."

"Tell her we're going to find Darwin," said Uncle Joe. "No one's paying any ransom."

"Who's there?" asked Neea.

"It's Uncle Joe. I'm over at Jello's. The guys and Uncle Joe are helping me. Don't cry! We're gonna find her, Mom. Uncle Joe knows what to do. We'll find Darwin, I promise."