Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Note (02/07/13)
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TITLE: Baby, Come Home | Previous Challenge Entry
By Virgil Youngblood
02/13/13 -
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The milk was in the fridge and the bread on the counter.
After twenty-three years, the note is still under the magnet. Celeste will be 39 tomorrow. At least, I hope she will be. The police did all they could, but they are as mystified as I am. I still don’t know if Celeste is alive or dead.
It wasn’t like Celeste to be late without checking in. I was worried, but not unduly so. She was my pride and joy, an obedient, thoughtful daughter that had never given me any real trouble. Her brother was a different story, much like his father. But he was in Afghanistan and his father was serving twenty years for tapping into a gasoline pipeline for his personal use.
I called Sherry that night at 11:03. She was awake, working on a team biology project Celeste was supposed to help with.
“I tried to call her, Mrs. M, but she didn’t answer. I left a message. I’m not sure now if we can finish this paper on time.” I could tell Sherry was miffed. “I don’t know where she is.”
Two weeks later the police found Celeste’s car. A rancher had called the sheriff’s office asking them to tow it. It was cross-wise in the road at the end of a country lane six miles south of town, blocking the gate to his oat field. The car was locked; the keys, Celeste’s wallet and cell phone were parked in the tray by the driver’s seat.
Sherry’s message and all of mine were in Celeste’s Voice Mail, unopened. The fingerprints in her car belonged to Celeste and her girl friends. Their alibis were unquestionable. If there had been any tracks in the dirt road, a hard rain obliterated them the night before the car was found.
The most puzzling thing of all was a slight collision crease in the left rear fender that left a four inch smear of bright red paint. Celeste’s car was a baby blue, just like her eyes. The day before when we washed our cars on the lawn, playfully squirting water at each other, the damage had not been there. I’m certain of that. I shampooed the grime off that fender. It’s still a mystery and the only clue we have.
As much as I pleaded with every kid I thought might know something about Celeste, I never learned anything that surprised me. She did not have a boyfriend. She didn’t hide things, like some of her friends who kept tattoos secret from their parents and participated in wild parties.
Celeste said she couldn’t afford to run with the crowd. She was going to college. All her energy was directed toward earning a merit scholarship and she was making the grades to do it.
Our church friends were faithful to pray and Pastor Bob visited frequently at first, lifting me up before the Father. But after a while my grief faded from their memory like a morning fog. I was left alone to deal with my shattered soul. I don’t blame them.
After all these years, hope is all I cling to. Someday, I pray, God will answer my prayers, and theirs, and I’ll know what happened to my baby. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
If she’s alive, I might even be a grandmother. I often wonder, would her children inherit her auburn hair? Would it be curly and soft to touch and have little sparkling highlights in it? Oh, me! I don’t mean to torture myself, but these thoughts come uninvited.
Her father and brother accuse me of running her off. Our relationship is, to say the least, not amicable. But, what else is new? They deal with it in their own way. They miss her, too.
I’ve often wondered if some pervert, some stranger, killed Celeste and hid her body. But I can’t wrap my mind around that. Nothing about that scenario with her abandoned car makes any sense.
The only realistic alternative is amnesia. Maybe she bumped her head in that little fender bender. I’ve read a lot about amnesia. It’s a possibility, definitely a possibility.
It’s the only hope I have this side of heaven.
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