“If you need anything, you call me,” he says. For that second, I can see the father he could have been in another life.
“Thanks for coming,” I say, aware the words fall flat as soon as they leave my lips.
And he leaves exactly as he came, without so much as a ripple.
The officer’s voice drags me back to reality.
“Good. We’ll need to speak with him as soon as he arrives.”
“You don’t really think he’s responsible,” Paige says.
Gonzales shakes his head. “We have to check all the boxes. But we are doing everything in our power to find your boy. I promise.”
My mom, aunt, and sister are soothed by this assurance, but it only makes my stomach churn. If this were an isolated incident, maybe the words would carry more weight. But on the backs of over a dozen other kids, they’re empty.
“Jo.” The voice comes from behind me, low and strained. I turn to find Aisha standing in the kitchen, worrying one of her braids between her fingers.
“I’m sorry,” she says. She flicks a glance toward the doorway, where the detectives and my family are still deep in conversation.
I move into the kitchen.
“It’s okay,” I say.
“We checked everything on this side of the creek. Every bush, every branch, every inch. Your brother isn’t there,” Aisha says with a grimace.
I slump back against the counter, reaching back to grip the edge.
“Okay,” I say. “Thanks for looking.” I scan the kitchen. “Where’s Sloane? And…”
Aisha’s lips pull thin. “They’re across the street. We can go as far as the back fence of the vet clinic, so they’re checking everything they can.”
Even if they did find something, some bright neon sign that directed them toward some underground bunker or shed with them and Jasper inside, it’d be a moot point. The four of us are powerless, non-corporeal and tangible alike. The most they could accomplish is laying eyes on him. And that’s if their predictions are correct and the kids are stuck on the property because their bodies are there.
I still don’t understand the rules of this half-life they’re living. I’d barely wrapped my head around ghosts, but this is something else. Their bodies, their living bodies, might be trapped somewhere, but their souls peeled off. Like some form of astral projection gone wrong.
None of it makes sense.
“Did Finn…Did he mention….”Did he mention that he’spretty sure you’re all still aliveis a question I can’t force out of my mouth.
“He told us his theory. And it makes a lot of sense.”
“But it’s a shot in the dark.”
“I’m so sorry.” Aisha’s eyes glitter with unshed tears.
Aisha should be doing arts and crafts in elementary school, playing kickball at recess, and swapping candy at lunches.
Even after the accident, I didn’t feel this powerless. Like I’m watching sand in an hourglass, and with every falling speck, my brother gets farther away from life and closer to appearing in this very kitchen as a phantom.
I don’t know how to stop any of this.
Thirty
Two days.
It’s been two days since Jasper walked out the front door. Since the detectives swore up and down they’d stop at nothing to find him.
His photo has been all over the news. His name and description on the radio. The search parties have died down, but that first night, it was as if half the town was on our block. So many flashlights they overpowered the waning moonlight.
