Page 25 of Traces of Kara

When Betty came back on the line, her voice was apologetic. “I’m sorry, Mimi. It looks like she had swapped hours with Ben for today. I thought she went to school during the day and that’s why she was working nights.”

“She does. It is. I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“She was scheduled to take over Ben’s earlier shift. Well, I don’t doubt she’d be upset with all that’s going on with Daryl and Kelly. When did she find out? I heard she wasn’t there for the turnover last night either, although that’s not very surprising. Seems no one does the handshake turnover anymore now that they’ve gotten the word that the plant’s closing. They even cut my hours.”

Mimi listened to Betty rattle on about how the power plant had once been the mainstay for the industrial town, but she was thinking of Kara. Mimi wondered when Kara had heard about Daryl, or if she had at all. Had she just been speculating? Her heart ached for her daughter. Mimi clung to the phone, listening to Betty ramble on about how they’d downsized to four crew members on each shift.

“Thanks, Betty. I gotta run.”

Mimi drove around town looking for her daughter. She stopped at Kara’s local haunts: Sheetz, where she bought coffee before work; her hairdresser Polly’s little shop on Artizan Street. She even drove out to the canal where Kara sometimes walked when she needed an escape. She was nowhere to be found. No one had seen her, or heard from her.

By the time she got home, she was emotionally exhausted, and she slumped onto the couch in the living room.

Ted walked in, his smile quickly fading. “Hey, hon. You look awful. You okay?”

She looked up at him in silence. Her chest ached with worry. She’d driven her daughter away. She hadn’t believed her, she hadn’t stuck up for her, and she hadn’t protected her. And now, she’d lost her.

Ted sat down beside her. He reached his arm around Mimi and leaned back. “What’s got you so upset?”

Mimi looked down at her hands, knowing if she told him he’d only pass it off as no big deal. She had to be strong and trust her intuition. Her daughter was hurting and she had to find her, regardless of what Ted might say.

“Mim? What is it?”

Mimi looked up at him with tears in her eyes. She tried to speak but her lower lip simply trembled, and tears spilled down her cheeks.

He pulled her close. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

She shook her head. “You’ll only get mad.”

“No I won’t. Whatever it is, if you’re this upset, it’s something bad.”

She shook her head.

“Is it work?”

She shook her head.

“Kara?”

She looked at Ted’s serious eyes and the way he leaned toward her, as if he were intent on listening, and wished she saw concern. She knew what he was thinking, though. Kara again? What do we have to bail her out of this time?

“What happened to Kara?”

Something inside Mimi snapped. She couldn’t fight with Ted anymore. She didn’t care if he cared or not. At that very moment, Mimi’s body crumbled against his chest and she sobbed. She sobbed until her chest hurt and her eyes felt as if they had sand under the lids. She sobbed for the loss of her daughter’s love, for the strain of Ted and Kara’s relationship, and for Kara’s heart breaking over Daryl. Mimi sobbed until she had no tears left.

“Shh…whatever it is, we’ll fix it. I promise.”

Mimi pulled back from him, wondering where his concern came from, but she held onto it with a thread of hope. “Daryl cheated on her.”

“Come on. You said yourself she just didn’t trust him.”

“Ted, I asked him. He cheated on her. She was right.” She broke down in tears again.

Ted’s teeth clenched. “You’re sure?”

Mimi nodded.

“Son of a bitch,” he said angrily.