“I don’t care. Say we’re sick or something.” He went to get a bottled water.
“It wouldn’t be far from the truth. None of us has slept all night and we are sick with worry.”
“Have you heard from your friend yet? What was his name? Passenger or something?”
I checked my phone and saw that there was a missed call from Ryder. How did I miss the call? I quickly called back.
It rang three times before he picked up. “Ryder.”
“Hey, it’s Paige. Sorry I missed your call. Did you find the girls?” My heart was pounding, hoping he’d say yes. Both of my parents were looking at me expectantly.
“Not yet. But we got a solid lead. We are headed out to Baker now, I just stopped off to get my bike.”
“Baker! That’s halfway to Vegas! How could they have gotten all the way out there?”
“Oh my god,” my mother said as she put her face in her hands and walked into the dining room.
“I’m not sure, actually. But we are all headed out there now. I’ll let you know what we find.”
“Okay.”
I guess my fear came through my voice because he said, “I will find them. Paige. I will.”
Tears came to my eyes and I nodded. “Be safe.”
* * *
An hourlater we were sitting in the den drinking coffee and trying to stay distracted. We had flipped through all of the television channels, but all that was on was another Guy Fieri food show, a bunch of church channels, and infomercials.
“Didn’t you have some kind of business thing you wanted to talk about?” my dad said.
“Oh yeah. I did. I’m not sure this is the right time, though.” I’d been up for more than twenty four hours at this point.
“I can’t think of anything better to talk about to take our minds off of everything, can you?” he said.
“No.”
“Go ahead. We want to hear your idea.”
“Okay. So, you know how I moved to La Playa because I wanted to help women and girls in some way, kind of like I did at the free clinic in Terrance.”
“Right,” they both said.
“Well, I’ve been applying for jobs like crazy at all of the nonprofits and things. I got one interview but they wanted someone with grant experience. Which was fine, because I want to be actually helping people and not in some office.”
“Okay…”
“So my idea is to get a mobile health clinic that goes around providing free or low-cost health services. Kind of like when Betty White got spayed at one of those mobile SPCA trucks.”
“But you’re not a doctor or a nurse,” my dad said.
“No, but you are. I am imagining that the truck could go to parks and parking lots and people who wouldn’t otherwise go to a doctor could come and get basic health care. We’d specialize in women’s health.”
My mom was nodding her head. “I think it’s a great idea. Lindsey Shubert from the club just retired from being a nurse for 35 years at the hospital here. Healthcare has changed so much and is really inaccessible for a lot of people these days.”
“What would be the costs involved? Where would you get the money?” my dad said.
“I don’t have that information yet. I still need to do some research and a feasibility study.”
