Chapter 35
Maggie knocked on Janet's door early that following morning. She was wondering if Janet had seen Anna. She didn't return that evening, and Maggie had cried all night by the look of her ruby face and stained cheeks. Janet bounced out of bed and called Anna's cell phone, but there was no answer.
"She's gone," said Maggie.
"What are you talking about?" asked Janet. "She's probably slept in or got the day wrong. She'll be back. She has to, I'm leaving in an hour or so."
"She's not coming back," Maggie insisted, standing defiantly in her colorful coat with the long leather belt tied around the middle. "Call someone and tell them."
"Maggie it's okay. I'll call Amarr and see if he's heard anything. Have you eaten anything yet? I can make you something."
Maggie nodded, holding back the tears and trying to be brave. She followed Janet into the kitchen. The back of the lab was her home now; the white room became a sanctuary when she needed to be alone. Most of the time, Maggie poured through the small library, reading and drawing and learning as many languages as possible. Anna brought back one self-learning book each time she went to Boulder, and Maggie had absorbed over a dozen languages along with the odd dialects she spoke from birth, but it was a secret she and Anna kept from the others. Maggie was beginning to understand why.
Amarr arrived at the lab early, and was immediately on the phone to the police. He knew it was highly unusual for Anna to be one minute late, but to not show up was worthy of an investigation.
"Can you stay today Janet? At least until it's light out?" he asked, hoping she could change her plans, but her contract was not as binding as Anna's was, and she did not feel compelled to help out. The white room, the underground lab and the scope of the "project" were weighing on her. She grabbed her purse and small suitcase and left for her four days off.
"Are you going to be okay by yourself today for a while? You can go back to bed if you like," asked Amarr. Maggie nodded, refusing to look Amarr in the eye. Her face was still red and showing distress.
"She's not coming back," Maggie cried out. Amarr bent down and hugged the shaking child, stroking her long black hair and wiping her tears away. With two little boys of his own, he sympathized with her, and suggested that maybe Anna was just having too good a time and forgot. But his version of the truth did not satisfy the girl, and when he asked her why she thought something was wrong, Maggie replied, "Because I can feel it. I can feel when something is not right. And I'm never wrong."
"Now, now, such a big imagination for a tiny girl," Amarr said soothingly, trying to keep the child from getting hysterical as he was uncertain of her potential for the unusual. Amarr's memory constantly nagged him about Maggie's unusual DNA, but what it meant was yet to be discovered. "I'm concerned too but I don't feel Anna is hurt or has left us. You play quietly in the library and paint something. I'll come and check on you every hour or so. Can you do that for me Maggie?" The child bobbed her head up and down all the way back to the white room where she closed the door and disappeared into her own world. She knew Amarr was unable to understand her. She was alone in the physical world but surrounded and supported by many ethereal voices and guides counseling her and encouraging her to be brave.
She sat cross-legged on her bed, praying and communicating through the intricate dialect she first learned from I,Son. She locked the door, knowing that being caught speaking to other worlds would change everything. Nothing was more important to her now than following the design she was born to fulfill and seeing it to the end.
A strong instinct rolled in like a wave, and she followed it. Maggie quietly opened her door and walked down the long hallway, hiding behind chairs, tables and anything she could find. Amarr was in his office on the phone, slouching and rocking in a squeaky chair talking to the local police, organizing a time for later in the day for questioning. She knew she would have to hide and be quiet; she was reading Amarr's lips as he spoke. The possibility of being found could alter the path she so desperately needed to follow. She no longer had Anna for protection, and no one on the outside could find out she exists, with one exception. Maggie watched Amarr patiently, and when he got up and went into the back of the lab, she slipped through the big glass door and ran outside to the fence.
A lone figure stood on the other side, silent and still. She ran up and raised her left hand to the fence. The man did the same. They looked at each other, transferring information in the quiet recesses of their minds.
"Soon?" she asked.
"Soon."
They stood in silence for a few more minutes, and the man nodded and ran up the hill at a speed no antelope could keep up with. Maggie ran back to the lab and quietly snuck down the hallway and into the white room. As she went past a small mirror, she noticed the streak in her hair had become lighter again.
Amarr checked on Maggie every few hours until Dr. Rosenthal came in around 5pm. They gave her strict orders to stay in the white room and locked the door from the outside. Maggie could hear them talking just outside in the hallway through a small crack on the intercom. It never did work properly but she was not going to give that secret away to anyone. Already Anna was filed in a missing person's report, and investigators were out looking for her. Only Maggie knew the truth of where she had been, but she couldn't tell Amarr or Dr. Rosenthal for fear they might slip and say Anna's daughter told them. There were so many games to be played, so many actors pleading their parts and scripting their lines as they went along. A six year old should never have to navigate such an experience. She sat up on her bed and closed her eyes, desperately trying to speak to Anna, to tell her that they would see each other again and to consider sticking around for a while, as much was to be done in the next year. A myriad of voices came through, voices of many languages and eras, all supporting her and holding her in grace to get through. This day in 2007 would look completely different, and she apologized to Anna for not being completely honest about who she was. It's okay little one, I know now. That's the beauty of being on the other side. Everything is transparent. Maggie smiled.
Amarr was becoming agitated from what he thought was the lack of care the local police showed, but many hours later a car drove into the parking lot. The detective, as he fashioned himself to be though only a local Sheriff from Boulder, appeared at 7pm. Being a small town of little happenings, any event out of the ordinary was a perfect excuse to play the part of someone diverse in forensics. He walked through the front door of the lab, scrutinizing every detail and running his hand along Meyer's oversize painting in the hallway. Amarr had to work hard to keep him in the front of the building. He and Dr. Rosenthal prayed Maggie would stay quiet and not give away the room, so neatly tucked away where no one would consider going. It was well conceived: the first door had a Janitor sign on it, and after walking six feet past buckets and brooms that were never used, a door you would have to know about to find led into the large white room. It was constructed after Maggie's birth, the day the lab was filled with FBI agents and SWAT teams. Meyer was not interested in getting that close to being discovered again, especially now when the big payouts had just been issued and the project was going successfully, so a reconstruction project to hide the room was built. Amarr kept reminding himself that there was no connection for police to believe the lab had a child captive inside, especially Anna's, so he could stop sweating and just answer the detective's questions truthfully, somewhat.
It was like being in a movie: the detective roaming his office, picking up papers and flipping through file tabs as if it was his right. Amarr really didn't mind as they did legitimate research but the man's attitude kept him on the edge of his seat. Dr. Rosenthal was more relaxed, enjoying the odd man's appearance and mannerism. He reminded her of Columbo from an old TV series in the 70's. He had an oversized manila colored overcoat heavily wrinkled, and his black hair swept across his forehead, attached to the other side by a heavy gel. His face had deep lines, and he spoke with an inconsistent New York accent. He leafed through the papers he had asked Amarr to have ready for him, focusing on only a few details.
"So, this Anna girl worked here for how long again?"
"This was her sixth year." Amarr kept his answers short. He remembered how it worked on a movie he had seen only days ago. The ways of Americans were still a bit unusual to him.
The Sheriff turned to Dr. Rosenthal. "And she did what exactly?"
Rosenthal lied with all the brilliance of a calculative sociopath. "She really didn't have a job title," she explained. "She cooked, cleaned, kept the offices and labs stocked and answered phones."
"I just don't get one thing," the Sheriff turned away. "She was here an awful lot. You must have a great deal of staff here to support such an employee. She worked mainly in the night?"
"The night and some of the days," said Rosenthal. "She was on contract, and wanted the overtime, plus because of the nature of this lab having intellectual property and patents, we needed someone very trustworthy."
"So when she didn't show up for work, you panicked," and the Sheriff whipped around to see the doctor and Amarr's face.
"It was highly unusual," said Amarr. "She was never late or disruptive. We fear the worst."
"Yes I see that. Hrmph," and he tossed his black hair across his forehead and patted the greasy ends back down. "It's just odd that she didn't have an address. You would think she would have an address. People have 'stuff' and he waved his hands in the air. "Where did she put all her stuff?"
"Boston Meyer has a house in town where she had been staying. It's used for guests, but William Meyer didn't mind her using it as she kept it clean and ready for when others needed it. She often slept here as well. She was young. She had no place to go and we are her family." Rosenthal's convincing argument had the Sheriff nodding his head as he scratched his chin and looked around some more. "I'll get out of your hair; you both probably want to get home to your families," and he turned and just before walking out he stopped. "One more thing. The CIA was here on April 1 2000 I believe? Something about a white light shining on the lab?"
"FBI," said Amarr. "They took samples of the grounds where it landed and then left."
"What were they looking for?"
"We were never privy to that," said Dr. Rosenthal. "We were inside eating dinner when it happened and never saw the light."
"Thank you. Can I come back again sometime, uninvited?"
"Of course," said Amarr, and the doctor got up and walked the Sheriff outside to his old car. He was most unusual and difficult to predict. He didn't seem too interested in knowing much about Anna. He was just as interested in the office routine as he was in the missing girl. Amarr took a long breath and watched the Sheriff drive away. Interesting man. Friend or foe?
April K. Reeves, Author. Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved.
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