My-Serendipity.net - Echoes in the Silence

The terrain wasn’t anything special, in fact, it was a little tedious. The Fire Chief drove the SUV with precision as he raced to keep up with the screaming sirens of the police cruiser while the others looked out their windows. No winding turns, no construction zones, not even a hill to be seen for miles. Straight lanes, two each direction, divided by a wide grass median with the occasional cluster of large trees on the side. Small town turn off after small town turn off passed by in a blur. Could they all be wondering the same thing that Hayden was? How could anything go wrong on such an unassuming road?

Listening to his brother texting from the seat beside him, he looked down and stared at the phone resting silently in his lap. He wanted to be dialing a number too, but the one person he needed to talk to wouldn’t answer. "A few more minutes and we’ll be there," the Chief announced.

While he wouldn’t consider himself a religious man, he had faith so he closed his eyes and prayed until he felt the car slow down. He opened them to the same thing they’d been looking at for miles – grey road and green trees. Everyone got out of the cars with the same confused expression.

"Ok, fan out," Captain Fellowes yelled. Hayden hadn’t been aware that the senior officer had made the trip until he heard his voice. "We’re looking from this point, with a 50 yard radius."

Seven sets of eyes hit the ground searching. The uniformed looking for a phone or a clue; the other four looking for the woman they all missed. Trying to ward off the black thoughts that threatened his mind, Hayden scanned the grass while thinking of her smile and her scent. He remembered the first time he kissed her in a hotel hallway outside of her room and their last kiss at the airport before he left but he needed more and then he heard the dulcet tone of her voice in his head.

‘It is up to you to keep going even though your heart is broken’

It was the moment his eyes filled with tears as he had listened to her talk to his cousin Justin. New to each other, barely dating, everything she said helped him unravel the mystery that was her. Of all the things to pop into his head, of all the moments they had shared, his eyes moved left to right across the short grass and wondered why *that* one…and then he heard the urgency in Eric’s yell.

"Over here!"

He looked just in time to see crutches being dropped in favor of running on a still injured leg, straight toward the bank of trees and brush. Hayden sprinted in the same direction, going even faster than he knew to be possible when he heard the panicked "MO? MO!"

It was a small rise, just shy of planned landscaping, but it was enough to hide what rested at the base of the clump of trees. Eric was still running but with his cast Hayden easily caught up, soon seeing what Eric had. "Melissa!" As Eric’s calls had alerted him, his brought Tove and Beth with the officer and two chief’s not far behind.

In the shade of the trees and barely visible against the shrubs, peeked out the crumpled remains of a very familiar truck. It sat quiet, undisturbed, and completely upside down for going on two days. As they neared the wreck they began to notice debris under their feet, things that Hayden recognized as permanent fixtures in the now crushed cab; broken CD’s, a jacket, her favorite travel mug, maps, dashboard trinkets. Adrenaline pushed them faster and harder, but none faster than Hayden who slid to the cab like a runner to home plate.

Without hesitation, he crawled into the cab through the window, or at least where there had been a window. Eric went in through the other side. Both of them called her name, both of them found only the face of the other staring back at them. The cab was broken and in disarray but one new thing caught their attention. The shattered but in tact windshield, the steering wheel, the dash board, and the seat all had iron colored stains dried to them.

Beth and Tove had gone to the back where they could barely make out the crushed remnants of a camper shell. The tailgate hung loose and the shell’s door was now a mat to destruction. She’d been through medical school and done a stint in the ER, but it hadn’t prepared the young doctor for what she saw inside when she peered in. It was her strangled scream that pulled Hayden and Eric out of the cab. They shot to the back where Tove had his arms wrapped around Beth. Her knees were buckled and tears streamed down her face.

Kona’s heavy wire travel crate, still secured to the bed of the truck, hung several inches above the damaged camper shell. The rear wall was partially collapsed, the pad and blanket she always rested on were shoved against it. The door bulged but the hinges and latch had held somehow, keeping it mostly closed. One small corner of the door stood out away from the cage, peeled back but stopped by a steadfast latch. The crate hung there, empty of its precious cargo. Now it held only iron stains of dried blood, tufts of fur and Kona’s collar dangling from a wire fragment below the latch. Unable to take her eyes off the mangled cage it became too much and she screamed out again, a drawn out cry of loss.

Eric held out his arms and she fell into them sobbing. "Bethy hey, it’s gonna get better," he tried to assure her, "at least we know where to start now. At least we know they are ok."

"How is any of this GOOD? How do we know they’re ok?" Hayden took his eyes off the stains to look at Beth, held tight by Eric, eager for optimism.

"They aren’t here. They both got out. There’s damage and blood but baby, they both walked away. Now we just need to figure out where they walked to and we’ll have them home again."

It was a glimmer and Hayden grabbed on. "Eric’s right." His words brought Beth’s face from sobbing to staring. "He is. Let’s walk it through and see what we can learn." Eric nodded as Beth took a step back. "Whatever caused the truck to flip happens and it comes to rest here."

"Mo gets out of the cab and goes to check on Kona…" Eric continues. "The latches are all bent so the door won’t open. She pulls at it, finally bending back a corner."

"Kona’s breakaway safety collar gets hung and snaps open the way it’s designed to. As a big dog fits through a very small opening, she scrapes against the exposed wires." Hayden pulled out his cell phone and studied the display, turning it around to show the group. "She tries to call for help but there is no service."

"She would have walked to the road," Beth quietly added, trying to focus. They all made their way back to the road with Hayden keeping an eye on his cell display, announcing when he had reception.

All seven people’s eyes hit the ground again, walking the edge of the road. The possibilities at this point were countless. Did they get a ride? Did they walk? Did she get through to a hospital? Where were they?

"Chief?" called the young officer. "I found something."

Just at the edge of the asphalt where the road turns to gravel before it becomes dirt was a small, silver phone. The group all identified it as the type Melissa used but when Hayden bent to pick it up, the officer stopped him. "I’m sorry sir, but we’re going to need to mark that as evidence first."

"Evidence?"

Tove had seen what Hayden hadn’t. Putting one hand on his younger brother’s shoulder, the other pointed a few feet up from the phone to a smattering of blood, then a pool of it close to the traffic lane, the gravel disrupted. As much as they all wanted to deny it, there would be none of that. Not now.

Pulling out his cell phone, Hayden typed in a very short text message before shoving the device back into his front pocket. The tension hung thick in the air, waiting, wondering. "Wherever they are, the need help." He spoke more calmly than anyone expected. "Chief, we will do everything we can to help. Any resource we have is at your disposal to direct just please…find them." Without another word, he turned and walked back toward the wreck.

With a tone of pure remorse, the Chief sighed before telling the remaining group that now, sadly, they had an official missing person. Tove and Eric exchanged glances before starting down their own paths. Holding firm to Beth’s hand, Eric worked with the officers on turning things ‘official’ and getting Missing Person signs out to hospitals further west than they had gone previously.

Tove held his phone in his hand, toying with the keys. He really needed to call about four numbers at once. Prioritizing based on the situation, he made his first call and listened to it ring before it connected. "Adam? It’s Tove. Hayden is going to need your help."

Beth looked to her fiancé planning a search, to her best friend’s brother in law preparing for the circus, then behind her to a man who should have been falling apart but seemed more pulled together than the whole of them combined. Patting Eric’s hand, she squeezed it before letting go to join Hayden standing by Melissa’s truck. "Hey," her voice quiet.

"Hey." Glancing at her, he watched her expression. "You don’t have to be here if it upsets you Beth. I just…I feel closer to her here."

"You shouldn’t be alone. She’ll kick my butt, not to mention tease me mercilessly over the fact that a doctor couldn’t be by an accident scene." Trying to lighten the mood was difficult if not completely impossible so she gave up. "Hayden? What are you thinking?"

"How much I love them both." His answer was swift and true. "I’m thinking that at least they are together and I worry a little less when they have each other. I’m wondering if I had skipped just one press event, if I had come home a day earlier, would any of this have happened."

"You can’t…"

"I can Beth and I do. I didn’t want to leave her this summer, but she said she knew it was coming. She said she was prepared for it. She told me it was ok. But now…"

"…and it is," she quietly sighed. "We talked about this summer two years ago. She was head over heals in love with you, but the feeling caught her off guard. Those were interesting days, listening to her trying to talk herself out of a future with you. I think she expected me to help."

"But you didn’t?"

"Never. I want for her what she wants for me and for you and for everyone else she loves – to be happy. From the very first day, you made her happy. Why would I want to talk her out of having that forever? I know the summer’s been hard on you both, but I promise you, even now, even with all this, she would still tell you to go. You have never stopped making her happy and she would still support you and your career."

"I don’t give a damn about my career. I just want them both home." He looked at her with glassy eyes, fighting to stay strong.

"I know. They will be, we’ll all see to that." They stood together looking at the truck in a silence soon broken by approaching sirens. "Come on," she offered her hand to him.

"Beth? Do you believe they’re ok?" She dropped her hand back to her side.

"Yes…and so do you. What would she say if she were here, looking with us?"

That was an easy one. "…that we need to keep going."

"Then that’s what we’ll do." She offered her hand to him again. "Together."

This time he took it, holding it tightly as they turned from the debris. None of them were alone and that’s how it needed to remain.