Josiphina
"Kai."
"Jo."
I looked him up and down, battered and bruised. He had a black eye, and a scar across his neck. All his scars had stories, stories I would never know.
"What..."
I couldn't finish, there were tears streaming from my eyes.
"I went after her," he whispered. He didn't need to say who "her" was. I knew. "I was too late. She'd fallen for the obvious trap. You know why? They spelled her great aunt's name wrong. When I woke up, I saw her in a car. She was starting to drive away. Then I found the note. I knew exactly where the hospital was, but I knew they'd catch her sooner. I ran to the airport, but she was already gone. She left no trace, Jo. No trace! I did everything I could, but she was gone." He was crying now too, not embarrassed at all. What else could I do to him? He was broken.
************
I didn't ask for another explanation, not wanting to upset him anymore. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to. There were so many answers just in reach. But I wasn't willing to stretch out my hand.
What Kai could tell me, through, was that David was being transferred. Kai said he didn't know where, but that it was somewhere far away.
I glided onto the back porch in the twilight, letting my fingers drag along behind me. I had never been out here before, but everything seemed familiar. A stunning oak tree in the center, where I wanted to just sit down and read, a old picket fence, and tired shed, slumped in the corner. I could imagine children running through that yard chasing each other around the tree, and hopping the fence. Then, daring each other to go in the shed, the creaky old shed, that their grandpa built, but they were scared of the dark, and the bugs, and the silence. I strolled over to the tree, replaying the beautiful scene in my head, and running my hands along the rough bark. It seemed so close to home.
Then, I saw it. The big slab of rock behind the shed. It was a grave. I ran over, and knelt down, brushing the dirt and grass away.
Zachary Rachel
My father.
My father died.
My father was buried.
Here.
"No."
I dug at the ground. Something. Anything. I needed a memory, a face, something of his to remember. He couldn't be gone. He couldn't.
"He couldn't. Couldn't. No. No."
"Jo."
It was Kai, but I couldn't turn my eyes. I was so close to my father. To truth. I couldn't turn back now. Not now.
I tore out a chunk of dirt.
"Jo." Kai grabbed me. Pulled me away from him. Away from my father.
"No."
I shrugged him off, running back to my father. He was here. Here.
Dig.
Something.
Anything.
Nothing. There was nothing.
Kai grabbed me again, managing to get me down by the tree bedrooms I sprinted again.
"No. No!"
"Jo, please..."
"No! He's gone. He's gone!"
At that moment, all faith that I'd had of my father's existence was demolished. I was alone. Alone.