4.
~ The first act came to a close with Peter Pan taking Wendy and her two brothers to Neverland. Ariadne had to admit, the role of Wendy went to a wonderful dancer. The wires that gave the illusion of flight was amazing because of the charming dance that Wendy and Peter did.
Talented as she was, Ariadne knew Darcy could never have pulled off such movements. Could never have given herself over to the facial expressions and comic timing that this Wendy did.
The house lights went up as the curtain closed. Ariadne turned to Arthur who was holding Drew on his lap. The two year old happy to be with her family and playing with the new doll they had gotten her at the gift shop. A shameless bribe to get her to behave while her big sister danced.
"Drew, what did you think of Darcy?" Ariadne asked as Arthur clutched his prized daughter closer.
Her husband stood and refused to look at her.
"I think I'll take the boys to the bathroom. They sat pretty still this whole time." he said.
Ariadne looked behind her to see that Eames was sleeping next to Sadie. The leggy spider woman looking as though she might just leave him there till morning.
She smiled at them and turned her attention to her boys. Both of them being suspiciously quite.
Dominic was asleep to. He didn't care for the ballet. Not even when Peter and Wendy started flying. She almost didn't notice Daniel wasn't seated beside her oldest.
"Daniel?" Ariadne suddenly shrieked.
She jumped up and Drew started to cry.
Eames snorted awake and Arthur looked wildly around their private balcony.
"What is it? What's happened?" Eames asked groggily.
"Daniel?" Ariadne shouted as she wildly looked for her helpless son.
"He went to the bathroom." Sadie tried to explain.
"Bathroom's in the lobby!" Ariadne almost cried. "You let him go alone? He doesn't know his way around the theater!"
She charged out of the balcony and into the hallway just as people were spilling out for intermission.
"Usher!" she shouted to an attendant in black. "Please!"
"Madam?" the usher asked.
"My son." she explained in French to save time. "He's missing. He's blind. He wandered away and we can't find him. Please, make a public announcement."
Ariadne had to hand it to staff at the theater, no sooner had she said a child was missing, than the doors were locked down, and an announcement went over the intercom for Daniel to try and announce his whereabouts.
"Attention!" the speaker crackled. "A young boy, under the age of six is missing. He is visually impaired. He had dark hair and was wearing tan slacks and a blue shirt and collar with a tan neck tie."
Immediately, people around her started to search for the boy as Arthur handed a screaming Drew to Sadie.
"I'm sorry, Ariadne." she was saying as Arthur almost roared for his son to come to him. "I thought he knew how to get there. He's so independent."
"Madam, none of the staff has seen the child in question." the attendant told her.
"He would have left during the first act. Don't you have people here in the lobby?" she cried.
Her youngest was screaming now; sensing something was wrong. Dominic tugging at her wanting to know where Daniel was. Albert pulling him away.
"Yes, madam. But no one has seen the child you've described. They are checking the restrooms now and no one can leave the building." he explained.
"Call the police!" she demanded.
Ariadne felt like she waited forever as the attendants looked for Daniel. The ballet was ground to a halt and the theater searched. The production taking a missing blind child very seriously.
"This is what he looks like." Ariadne sniffed as Arthur, her wonderful, steadfast Arthur, was on the PA telling Daniel to come out if he was hiding.
She showed him the boy's school picture on her smart phone.
"Very good. Email it to me, and we will post it on the viewing stations." the attendant said.
After over an hour, the show had to resume and the audience filed back into the theater. Darcy was released from the play and told what happened.
"They were saying a blind child was missing." she said worriedly as she hugged Ariadne. "I knew it had to be Daniel."
"Madam, the building has been on lock down, everywhere has been searched." the police detective said gravely. "Do you think he might have left the building?"
"Absolutely not!" Arthur snapped. "He's been taught better."
"Madam, our only option is that he has been taken."
~ There was nothing to do, but go home.
Ariadne didn't want to. She felt odd about coming home with one of her children missing. Sadie and Eames offered to stay, but Drew was already worn out and Dominic was behaving for once. Darcy had suddenly started acting like a grown up and began to help out. She even got dinner started.
"Who-" Ariadne shuttered as Arthur made her lie down in bed. "Who would do this? He's just a little boy."
"We don't know that he was kidnapped." Arthur said calmly. "It could be that he decided to leave the building and right now he's in some coffee shop and feeling all smug. We'll get a call soon and he'll be grounded for the rest of his natural life."
"He will never leave this house again!" Ariadne cried and suddenly, she couldn't stop crying.
"Arthur!" she wailed as the thought of her helpless baby, alone and in danger made her want to go insane.
"Who could have taken him? Why?" she gasped.
"I don't know." he was whispering. His body spooning around hers as she let go of everything except her own grief and worry.
"Arthur, I can't survive if something happens to him. I'll die." she whispered. "I promised the day he was born that I would look after him. That I would protect him."
"I know." he said numbly.
"Arthur, what if he's dead?" she sobbed and it felt like her heart had been savagely ripped out.
Why couldn't someone have taken her? Not her helpless, blind son, but her? She would endure anything before she let it hurt her child. She would gladly take his place if it meant he was safe at home.
She wanted her baby back. The sweet little boy who comforted her more than anything. Who's hair curled naturally in a way she envied. Her sweet boy who cuddled with her when he was a baby. Who chased his brother as well as a seeing child would. She would give anything down to her own life to have him back.
~ Albert was waiting for Arthur in the the living room.
"How is she?" the older man asked.
"Our son is missing." the point man said darkly.
The doctor had come by an our ago. Arthur had failed to keep his wife calm and she had to be given a shot to let her get some sleep. Arthur could hardly take his wife in such hysteria. She screamed and cried for their son like a child wanting a beloved toy.
She wanted him magically returned to her with no thought at all as to why he vanished or what condition he would come back in.
"I might be burying my son in a few days days, dad." the point man added darkly. It was a fear he had felt for hours now. He kept imaging the police finding Daniel dead. His poor little body, broken and lifeless in a storm swearer somewhere. His face bloodied and abused.
What if his kidnapers had done things to him? Things no child should have to endue? What if they had touched him sexually? What if Daniel didn't have any clothes on when he was found? What if?
Arthur couldn't control himself anymore. He started to cry.
"Arthur, we'll find him." Albert promised.
"What if we do?" Arthur said as he sank into the couch next to his father. "What if we find him and he's been molested?"
"If we find him alive, that's the important thing." Albert said.
"What if we find him dead?" Arthur asked.
"We can't think like that."
"What if we do?" Arthur asked coldly.
"Then we bury him." Albert said calmly as the Point Man broke down.
Why couldn't this have happened to him? Not his son. Anything but his son. He never admitted it. But Daniel had always been his favorite. He was so much like Arthur in the way he did things. Dominic may have looked more like him, Darcy was enigma, and Drew was his little princess, but Daniel was wonderful meld of Ariadne's good looks and his behavior. He was so smart and capable; he was the best of both of them.
He couldn't survive it if he lost his son.