She had always been a good hider. But this time, she had outdone herself. No one could disappear quite like Adelaide. She had a habit of jumping up and running out of a room as if compelled by a greater force and wouldn't come back for two days at a time. The second time this happened I started to take notes, which turned into a chart, which turned into the calendar that now took up half of my wall.
You could run your watch, count your days, and even set your minutes by Adelaide's disappearances. But when she left last week, it wasn't on schedule. It was two days, five minutes, and eighteen seconds early. And when it came to Adelaide that could mean nothing but bad, bad things. And when she didn't return forty-eight hours later on the dot like she always did, I knew that whatever had happened would cause her to leave town.
And sure enough, as if reading my mind, I received a note.
"Don't look for me.
-A"
I pulled out the note and read it again. The words were faded from my repetitious tracing of the letter strokes. Oh Adelaide, what have you done?