“Don’t quit your day job, Ashley!” Tom guffawed. “All right, up next, weather with Matthew, who’s in for Faith tonight.… Will you need to crank up the AC this weekend? Stay tuned.…”
The show went to commercial break.
Matthew? Carol frowned. Matthew was the weekend weather guy. He was OK, but he was not Faith. Where was her favorite weather gal tonight? Faith had been on the sixPMshow and not said anything about leaving for the evening, as she sometimes did when she was going to be off.
Carol glanced at Jim, fully asleep and lightly snoring. She looked at her phone, resting between the cranberry juice and a lamp. She thought of Olivia. Maybe Olivia would know where Faith was. After all, she was working the night shift at Channel 9 and would be there now.
Carol picked up her phone and texted.
Hi Liv, where’s Faith tonight? I see Matthew is coming on. Did Faith skip out? Maybe she has a hot date!
Carol knew that Faith was unmarried and had no children. Could it be a date? It titillated Carol to have inside access to the station like this, and she stared eagerly as the typing bubbles were going. The bubbles seemed to be taking a long time. The commercial ended and the anchors were chatting with Matthew in that fake-banter way.
“So Matthew, I have friends coming in from out of town and I need some good weather for them. Can you deliver for us?” asked Veronica, with the huge, toothy smile that Carol always considered way too over-the-top.
“And I’m going to the Tigers game tomorrow,” added Tom. “So we need that sunshine to stick around—but not too hot, please.”
Tom was handsome, with silver hair, but it was extremely hairsprayed and he always looked overtanned, in Carol’s opinion. In fact, Carol believed that Faith was the only one of the four anchors who was fully authentic and genuine. The sports guy, Roger, tried too hard and his puns fell flat.
“I would definitely bring some sunscreen with you to the game, Tom,” replied Matthew, and started his forecast. He looked a little disheveled, his hair sticking up on one side and his tie not fully straight. Carol took a bite of popcorn followed by a sip of juice, feeling the tang of the cranberries collide with the saltiness of the popcorn. It was the perfect combination.
Her phone buzzed with a text from Olivia, and Carol picked it up.
I don’t know where Faith is but something weird is going on. Matthew got called in at the last minute. Faith never returned from her dinner break. A few managers were running around whispering and went behind closed doors. Matthew seemed really mad. I heard him say he was having dinner with his fiancée when they made him come in to do the show.
Carol had to read the text twice. Never returned from dinner break? What the…? That wasn’t the Faith she knew and loved.
Looking back at the TV, she felt she could now see an anger in Matthew’s eyes, his jaw firmly set, as he stood in front of the map talking about humidity levels. Carol frowned and glanced back down at her phone. What was going on? Curiosity mixed with just a touch of unease as she texted Olivia back:
Never returned from dinner break?
The response came quickly.
That’s what everyone is saying. I guess people tried to call and text her and she never responded. When it got to be late they had to call Matthew to fill in.
Managers behind closed doors? Faith not responding to phone calls? A prickle started in Carol’s tailbone and began to traverse at a rapid pace up her spine.
The typing bubbles were going again. Carol waited impatiently, thoughts of the popcorn and cranberry juice suddenly gone.
Olivia texted again:
You know what’s even weirder? I might have been the last one to see her. I was going to my car to get something I forgot and she was out there. She handed me a folded-up note and asked if I would do her a favor and give it to Tom.
Carol thought immediately of an episode of20/20she had seen recently where a note handed to a neighbor had broken open the case. Too bad they didn’t know what Faith had said in her note to Tom. Maybe if they did, Carol and Olivia could figure out what was going on. But before Carol could reply, Olivia texted one more time.
I have to run. Laura, the executive producer, is waving me over. I think she needs something. Talk soon.
OK, Liv. I’m so sorry you had this strange thing happen in your first week.
Olivia hearted it, and Carol knew the conversation was over for now. But what could be happening with Faith and what did Faith say in that note? Carol twisted her hands together as she watched Matthew finish his forecast. His endings were so boring, not “… I’m your fair-weather friend…” like Faith; he just always said stupid things like “So stay cool tomorrow.…”
“Jim?” Carol prodded at her husband with a finger.
“I’m sleeping,” he muttered. Carol felt bad waking him up, she really did. Jim worked long days at his roofing job, but she needed to talk to someone.
“Jim, something is wrong with Faith.”
“Carol,I’m sleeping,” he mumbled again.
