I've always known some members of my family were prejudice, but never racist. The look in my aunt's eyes as she looks at Reena confirms it and it makes me hate her, and if that wasn't enough, it is followed by she saying awful things about her.
My little talk with the boys already turned my mood sour and now this; my anger is building but I'm trying my best not to let it consume me which is hard, especially when Aunt Elizabeth won't shut up! When she stands to leave I almost rejoice until she talks,
"You sleep with dogs you will catch fleas."
That's the last straw and I'm up and moving towards her, Summer and Lucas hold me back while I dispell a barrage of words at her. My parents are shouting too, my Dad's louder, angrier. Things are about to get out of hand when my mother screams for everyone to shut up, and we do.
"Stop! This is not how we're going to spend our first Christmas without our parents. They'd be ashamed and worse, they'd be right. We really can't survive as a family without them." She takes a deep breath and drops into her seat, "Can we just put our difference aside?" She looks at Aunt Elizabeth who nods and sits back down.
"Max?" I don't realize everyone's looking at me and so I calm myself, and Summer and Lucas back off. I'm about to sit when Summer starts looking around, "Where's Reena?"
And that's when I notice she isn't at the table. I rush to my room thinking she's there but she isn't, I only find her clothes and phone. I search the rest of the rooms before heading back downstairs to a worried Summer and Lucas.
"She's not down here either," Lucas says and I begin worrying even more.
"You don't think?" Summer rushes to the door and throws it open, "Your car, it's gone." Summer slams the door shut and runs her hand along her arms.
I grab my coat off the hanger and grab my Dad's keys, but I'm stopped by my mom. "Max, she probably went home."
I stop and decide to call her mom, but she couldn't possibly have reached yet, so I wait the longest twenty minutes of my life where my mind comes up with all the terrible things that could happen to her.
"Hello, Ms... it's Reed Max. No, I was just calling to ask if Reena came home?... You're sure you haven't seen her?" I hang up the phone and take a few seconds to calm my heart, it feels like its ready to come through my chest.
"She isn't there," I say to my mom and she gives me a limp nod.
My dad steps up behind her and sighs, "I'm coming with you."
"You can stay here Dad, I'll find her."
"Yeah," Summer says, "We're going with him anyways."
Lucas nods and they begin getting dressed.
"I'm still coming along. Ifyou haven't realized as yet, she isn't just carrying your child, she's also carrying my grandchild." That causes me to pause and I stare at my Dad, before nodding.
We leave and my dad agrees to drive. The condition of the road and the poor visibility causes me to worry even more, what if something happened to her? I need to know she's safe. I need to know she's okay. I need to know!
An hour has passed and we still haven't seen my car, so we head to her house and she's not there. Her mom tells us she might be at her uncle, but when we call he says she isn't. I'm about to lose it when I hand the phone to dad who tells her uncle what happened. He decides to help us search for her and we leave.
We drive for another hour, looking everywhere for my car but nothing. It's almost dark when my dad decides we need to go home.
When we turn up without her my mom gives me a hug and tells me not to worry, she's okay. Except I don't know that for sure.
Dad finally calls the police who turn up twelve minutes later. We relay what happened and they write it down, saying they'll get a team in two hours to look for her although she's technically not missing.
"Please you don't understand, she's pregnant and..." I start trembling and my dad steps up.
"Please, she's four months pregnant and she has a bit of a health problem."
I show them her picture and they leave, promising to find her but that does nothing to calm my nerves, hell it makes it even worse and for the rest of the night, I don't sleep.
***
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