Chapter Twenty-Three



It was late morning by the time that Annabel's parents noticed that their daughter was missing. Her mother went up to Annabel's room to tell her that she was late for Randy's funeral and she'd better get ready or they were leaving her, when she realized that Annabel was gone.
Upon further investigation, Annabel parents saw that Annabel was not only gone but she had run away; her clothes were gone, as was her duffle bag and the bushes below her window appeared as though they had been trampled or in this cased jumped on.
Annabel's mother begun telephoning Annabel's friends -exactly she was just randomly calling people since she had no idea who Annabel's friends were- and her father was trying to find a note or anything that would clue them into where Annabel had gone off too.
In twenty minutes, Courtnee and her husband had given up hope on finding their daughter. It seemed somewhat 'on cue' that Joshua showed up just as Courtnee threw the phonebook across the living room.
When Derek let Joshua inside, Courtnee recognized him as 'that boy that Annabel was with.'
Joshua was somewhat surprised -but not really- to discover that Annabel had run away.
"Do you know where she could have gone?" Courtnee asked, after telling him to sit down on the couch.
"No, not really." Joshua said and that was true. "She didn't leave a note or anything?" He asked.
"No, not a single thing. You'd think she would, if she cared. She wants us to worry; no, she doesn't care about other people's…" Courtnee begun but Joshua cut her off.
"Mrs. Tomas, I'm sure Annabel cares and I'm sure she left a note, you just aren't looking hard enough." Joshua said, defending Annabel from her mother's ranting.
Courtnee fixed a stern glare on Joshua. "Well then, you are welcome to go look for one. I'm sure you know where her room is." Courtnee said, her voice dripping with venom.
Joshua stood up and walked up the stairs to Annabel's room, opening her door and entered her room. The room looked like even more of a disaster than it had when Joshua had last visited Annabel. He guessed it was her parents doing; they had probably been looking for a note from their daughter.
Joshua shut the door behind him and stood for a moment, in front of the door getting used to the silence of the room. Last time he had been in her room, he and Annabel had almost kissed; now the room was silent and Annabel-less.
Joshua walked across her room and begun looking through the papers on her desk, it was possible that her parents simply over looked a note so he looked at every piece of paper. Buried under a mountain of papers was a newly published book called "Air Disasters"; Joshua could tell it was recently published because it said it was on the jacket of the book.
Joshua picked up the book and opened to the table of contents; on page 180 was a section on Flight 180. Joshua turned to the page and tucked in the middle was a note written in Annabel's neat script. Joshua took the note out of the book and read it.
"Dear Joshua,
I figured you'd be the one to find a note, not my brain dead parents so I didn't bother to leave one for them. So, I'd appreciate that you don't tell them you found a note or where I'm going. I'm going to Long Island; I need to talk to somewhere there. I need to understand. Tell Nicolas where I am, maybe he can explain a little more.
Love, Annabel."
Joshua read the note over once more before he tucked it into his pocket. He walked back over to the door and left her room and headed back downstairs.
Annabel's parents were waiting in the living room for him to return.
"Did you find anything?" Her father asked, studying Joshua.
"No, I didn't. She probably didn't leave a note." Joshua muttered and without another word he left the house.