Free

Phone Calls

The next morning, I was awoken to the buzzing of my cell phone. In a sleep-inflicted daze, I sat up and grabbed for the phone on my nightstand.

"You've reached Amaziah Whittaker, author of the New York Times bestselling book Embracing the World, Becoming Free, how can I help you?" I answered in a croaky voice.

"Ziah," a woman's voice answered solemnly on the other end.

Ziah, I thought to myself, Someone's calling me by my non-professional name.

Then all at once, everything hit me like a falling brick. The memory of the brilliance, the luminescence of the great light the day before; the uneasy feeling as though something wasn't right; not being able to reach Anna or my parents; the news headlines about people disappearing.

Now this woman had called me, and I noticed how her voice sounded strangely familiar.

"Who is this?" I asked, sounding not rude, but curious and concerned.

"This is Kim Laire, Annabelle's mom," He voice fell at the end of her sentence.

All at once my mouth went dry, and my heart began to hammer so hard I could almost hear the blood rushing through my body. Anna's mother had never called me before.

"Mrs. Laire," I whispered, my voice quaking slightly. What happened."

"Ziah," she whispered back, barely able to choke out her words. Finally, she stopped trying to hold her composure for me, and deep down I already knew what was coming.

"Anna disappeared!!" She sobbed into the phone. "Yesterday she... she... had just walked in from work only minutes before... before... you know.... Bright light..."

"Yes, I know what you mean, I was outside when it happened."

"And... and... she was gone. All night I watched the news. I didn't...want to be... believe it!!"

She let out another series of sobs.

Listening to her was all too much. I put my hands over my face. Watch began to drop from my nose and dribble onto the palms of my hands. Rain Clouds blurred my eyes.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't intend to fall apart like this." She said after a moment.

"It's ok," I murmured, now trying my best to keep my composure. Compared to what her mother must've been going through, I certainly should've been able to keep my composer, but it took one of the greatest bouts of effort I had ever given to do so. I didn't want to believe it, just like her mother I really really didn't want to believe it. Maybe this was all a bad dream, and I would wake up to the sun on my face, realizing that everything was just a terrible, terrible nightmare.

After Mrs. Laire composed herself enough to get full sentences out, she spoke again. "I denied the fact that she was gone for the longest time Ziah. I was up all night, waiting for her to walk into the house, telling me she had gone out with her friends for the night. She wanted to move out soon, as you probably know, and she was old enough that she certainly should have been moving out. Maybe she had gone out house-hunting.

But then, in the middle of the night I went in to check her room again, and laying on her bedspread, where my eyes had skimmed over it before, was her silver cross necklace, with the clasp still intact."

My watery eyes widened. A shower of tears ran down my cheeks and rained onto my knees. I stifled a sob, as did Mrs. Laire. It took her a moment again before she started speaking.

"I kept hearing word from the media that the clothing people wore mainly disappeared with them, and the outfit Anna was wearing that day was nowhere to be found. Only her necklace remained. She wore that cross every day, she said it was a sign that she had been redeemed."

"She told me about her faith, I saw her wearing the necklace" I managed to choke out, rushing through every word.

"But Ziah, I have to tell you this before I lose it again. I'm not sure how or why, but somehow, I know deep down that Anna would want you to have her necklace. I know that you're not religious, I'm not the worshipping type myself, but I just know Ziah, I just know she would want you to have it."

"I agree" I murmured.

"Would you like me to mail it to you? What's your address?"

I layed down across my bed. "Actually, if you don't mind I'd wouldn't mind flying out to get it myself. Your house, it's only a few hours from my parents house and... I'd like to pay a visit to the area because I haven't heard from them..."

My eyes welled up again.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Mrs. Laire choked sympathetically.

"No, I should be the one saying that to you, you've lost your daughter."

She let out a quivering sigh. "I get this feeling in my gut that the whole world has lost a piece of itself, whether that be in the form of a person who disappeared or not."

"You know what Kim, I thought I was the only one who had that vibe."

We were both silent for a moment, listening to each other's muffled cries that we had tried so hard to conceal.

"I'd better go, got more phone calls to make. Goodbye Ziah, text me about your coming to get Anna's necklace when you get a chance, there's no rush. I know she wanted you to have it, and that she loved you so dearly."

I could barely talk. "Thank you Mrs. Laire, I'll talk to you soon. I'm so sorry about... about everything you've endured. Goodbye."

As soon as I pressed the red hang-up symbol, I knew I could no longer try to be manly. It was all too much. I collapsed onto my bed and gasped at the air. No, not Anna, anyone but Anna. Where had she gone? Would I ever see her again? Was she with aliens? Did she get sucked into some sort of White black-hole? What happened? What on earth, or in the universe had even happened?

For the longest time, I thought that I was free, and I was free, but now, I no longer felt free. I no longer longed only to make myself happy, because joy felt like a distant memory. I didn't want to embrace the world today, the world had failed me, and it would take time to get over it. My best friend was gone, and I never realized that she held so many key components to my freedom. There was something about her, the sparkle in the corner of her eye. I longed to once again bathe in the emerald pools where shafts of sunlight danced. Anna had taken me to a place where freedom was closer than it had ever been, and I didn't realize that until now. Even when chose to stop believing in my philosophies and became a Christian, it almost felt as though there was something in her spirit that filled my heart with a sense of joy and freedom, something that I wanted to reach out and grasp. I remembered the day when a bald eagle soured past my window, and for a split second, Anna's Jesus theory crossed my mind.

I shook my head. Why did she dedicate her life to something like that? Why didn't she just let herself live? Look what happened to her now, I thought. Looks like religion really set her free. What a waste of dedication. How could anybody have the heart to give up their life for something like that.

I sobbed some more. I wasn't crying because I missed Anna in a romantic context. I was crying because I missed her as a friend. Anna and I didn't have much puppy-love for each other because our relationship was based on genuine, true, friendship; a love that was stronger and went far beyond external romance.

. . .

Later that day, after cancelling all my author talks and book-signings, I received a call from an uncle of mine, wondering if I'd heard from either of my parents since the incident the evening before. He said that nobody in the family had been able to reach them, and that there seemed to be nobody at their home.

My apprehensions were confirmed. My parents had disappeared. That night, laying in bed I didn't shed another tear. The thoughts in my head had slowed from a wild gallop to an exhausted walk, trudging along upon the path of life. If none of this had ever happened, I would be eagerly awaiting tomorrow, when I was supposed to catch an early flight to New York to give a speech that evening in the New York Public Library about my journey to the top. Events like that used to be my passion, but at the moment I felt no passion, no fire. I felt as though my once perfect world was crashing down around me.