A/N Thanks again for the reviews! Keep on reviewing! Timeline wise, Helga left Wednesday after school.
Chapter 5
Thursday
Ring…..Ring…..Ring
The ringing of the phone startled Miriam awake from where she was asleep on the couch. "Hhhellooo?" she said in a groggy voice.
"Hi. Ms. Pataki? This is the attendance office at P.S 118. We're calling because Helga didn't show up for school today and no one called in to excuse her."
'Helga's sick? Oh yes I think I remember her saying something like that… wait… was that yesterday she said that or four months ago?' "Oh, oops yeah she must be sick then."
"Ok thanks I'll mark that down." The phone clicked signaling the end of the conversation.
Miriam walked up the stairs tripping a few times. "Helga sweetie are you sick" she asked outside Helga's door. When no answer came Miriam cracked open the door to Helga's room and saw it empty. "Helga answer me!" Miriam started getting panicked she ran into Helga's closet and the bathroom and still found no sign of her. "B…B?!"
"What Miriam!" Bob screamed from his arm chair, mad at Miriam for interrupting his football game.
"Where's Helga?"
"Who?!"
"HELGA! "Miriam screamed from the top of the stairs
"Oh Criminy Miriam! Did you check her room?"
"Yes B, she's not in there!"
"While she's probably at school! The girl has got to go to school."
"No the school just called here saying she didn't show up!" Miriam came down the stairs to stand in front of Bob blocking his view of the TV.
Bob fruitlessly trying to peek around Miriam at the TV, gave up and looked at his wife. "Well she has got to be somewhere, kids don't just disappear".
"Well what should we do?"
"Use your head Miriam we call the police" Bob stomped over to the phone
"Hello Hillwood City police station what's your emergency?"
"What's my emergency?! I can't find my daughter! That's the emergency!"
"We will send someone to your house to investigate right away sir." Bob slammed the phone to hang up.
…..
"Now Mr. Pataki how long exactly has your daughter been gone?" The police man asked holding up a notebook and pen.
"Ahh…umm. I think I saw her a few nights ago" Bob said awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. "Miriam come over here and answer the police's questions!" Bob yelled trying to take the heat of the questions off him.
"Ma'am when did you notice your daughter's absence?" The police man tried again.
"The school called to tell me she wasn't there, and that's when I noticed."
"Did she come home from school yesterday?"
Both Bob and Miriam look at each other hoping the other would have the answer.
"I think she did." Miriam said hesitantly.
The police man looked up in frustration" Do you think or do you know?"
Bob was getting more and more flustered by the police's questions and his in ability to answer them. To hide this Bob did what he always did—he got angry. "This is a waste of our time she's probably skipping school, so go out and find her, bring her home, and then I'll deal with her! That little missy will never skip school again on my watch!"
A little frightened of Mr. Pataki, the police fled the Pataki home on a mission to hunt down one Helga G. Pataki.
….
"What do you mean she's MISSING?!" Bob exclaimed outraged at what the police were telling him.
"Well Mr. Pataki we looked everywhere! The park, the arcade, the baseball field, the ice cream shop, the amusement park, the zoo…" The Police man listed off "We looked every single place where a kid would go when they skip school and we can't seem to find her and since it could be more than 48 hours since her disappearance we have to file this a missing person's case."
Bob took a couple steps back feeling unsteady with the news he was given. If there was one thing Bob hated it was feeling helpless and not in control. He needed to be strong, he needed to make everything ok for Miriam and for him. "I don't care what it costs pal, just get me my little girl back!"
"We will do everything in our power Mr. Pataki" the police man promised.
Miriam was just as shocked and as Bob. She couldn't be strong like him though at the moment. "Face it Miriam, you're a lousy mom" Miriam remembered the time Helga had said that to her and that line kept repeating in her head. 'I am a lousy mom.' What kind of mom doesn't know there daughter has been missing? What kind of mom let this happen? Miriam collapsed on the couch sobbing as the policemen left. Bob not knowing what else to do sat down on the couch next to his wife. The both of them feeling very hopeless.
The Next Day (Friday)
Arnold couldn't believe it. Looking around the classroom with class about to start there was still no sign of Helga. "I can't remember the last time Helga missed so much school. I guess Helga must be pretty sick huh Gerald. "
"Hmm what? Oh yeah probably." Gerald was so engrossed in a magazine he was barley listening.
"Class settle down!" Everyone quieted and looked at Mr. Simmons. "Now it seems Helga has gone missing." The class started breaking in conversation at this "Now I don't want any of you to be scared, I'm sure she's just fine." Raising his voice to speak over the crowd of voices. "However these police men need to talk to you so they can have a better idea where to start looking for Helga. So there going to call you out one at a time—Harold how about you go first?"
"Why do I always have to go first," Harold mumbled under his breath as he stomped out into the hallway. After Harold they called out Stinky and then Sid, Curly, Rhonda, Gerald and Lila.
"When did you last see Helga Pataki?"
"I don't know anything!" Harold yelled, starting to get stressed out from the questioning.
"Can you just tell us the last time you saw her was?"
"I don't remember. I want my MOMMY" Harold wailed and ran off.
"When did you last see Helga Pataki?" The police officer asked Stinky the same question.
"Well gee I saw Helga at school on Wednesday"
"Did you see where he went after she left school?"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….ummmmmmmmmmm….errrrrrrrrrrrr…"
The police officer was anxiously waiting to write something down.
"…nope." Stinky finished finally
The officer face palmed as Stinky went back inside the classroom. "When did you last see Helga Pataki?"
"I like your uniform! Do you think I could buy a uniform like that? That badge sure is neat. Can I touch it" Sid rambled. The officer signaled his partner to let the next kid come back in realizing getting answers out of this kid was a lost cause. The officer saw six more kids each of them getting more and more on his nerves and he was still getting nowhere and becoming more and more frustrated. When the police were at their wits end and were starting to think this was a waste of time they finally got some useful information.
"What's your name?"
"Arnold"
"Arnold when was the last time you saw Helga?"
"At school on Wednesday."
The officer didn't bother writing the information down since he was getting the same information from everybody.
"Ok thanks Arnold you can go."
"Wait! It's my fault she's gone."
The officer perked up at this new lead. "What do you mean?"
"We had a fight, well we always fight, but I said some pretty mean things. "Arnold stared down at his hands in shame.
"What kind of things?"
"I said" Arnold took a deep breath "Iwishshewoulddisappear" Arnold said in a rush half hoping the officer wouldn't hear. Could he get arrested for this? 'It was one wish, I didn't expect it to come true!'
After making sense of what Arnold said, realization dawned on the officer. Finally they had some useful information! Now they knew the motive the girl had for going missing. 'She must have run away because of the hurtful words from her classmate' the officer concluded.
Mistaking the look on the officer's face, Arnold thought the police decided that he was the cause of her disappearance. That something supernatural must have happened to make her vanish. "I don't know how, but my wish came true! She has disappeared."
The officer quickly realized what false conclusion the kid had come to. "Kid she hasn't disappeared, she's gone missing." He assured Arnold "Trust me, no matter how much you wish something you couldn't have made this happen. You don't have any divine ability. Helga is out there we just have to find her."
Arnold nodded his head slowly. No matter what the police said he still felt responsible for this happening. He promised himself at that moment, he would do everything in his power to help find her. "You should talk to Phoebe. She's Helga's best friend. She would have more information than anyone."
"Thanks kid. Cheer up we'll find her."
Arnold nodded, wanting to believe him. He went in the class room to fetch phoebe, feeling optimistic that Helga would return soon.
….
"So I hear you are Helga's best friend."
"That is correct officer"
"Did you happen to see Helga since school on Wednesday?"
"No"
The officer felt defeated guessing they hit another dead end until phoebe spoke again. "But I was the last person to talk to her"
The officer sat up straight. "What did she say?"
"I asked if she wanted to come to my house, we had this project we were supposed to work on, but she told me she wasn't feeling well and that she wanted to head home."
"Did you see which way she went?'
"Well I had to get on the bus, but I defiantly saw her walking the direction to her house."
"Thank you Phoebe." He turned to his fellow officers "Well guys we better go, we got all the information were going to get."
Phoebe watched the policemen start to leave. She ran after them down the hallway "Please!" She pleaded making the police stop in their tracks. "Please find her, she's my best friend. I don't know what I would do without her."
The officer's heart went out to the little girl. He bent down so he was eye level "I promise we will do everything in our power to find your friend." The police then headed out of the building. Phoebe stood there in the hallway long after they left. Feeling lost and not knowing what to do.
…..
"You better have some good news." Bob greeted the police with, when he opened the door.
The officer still a little frightened of Bob thought it best to deliver the news quick and to the point. "Your daughter has been kidnapped."
"WHAT!?" Bob reached out to shake the officer, but the other officers threatened to arrest him if he touched them.
"B calm down" Miriam tried her best to nullify him, knowing Bob was on a full blown rampage.
"Our daughters been kidnapped, how the heck am I supposed to calm down?" Screamed at nobody in particular. "You find this man and you—"
"Woman." The policeman cut him off. "We believe it was a woman who took your daughter."
That comment strangely enough made Bob calm down a little bit. Call him sexist, but Bob would much rather it was a women than a man. Men are violent: they could beat her, kill her, or worse ra—no Bob couldn't even think it. A women however, they were gentle and nurturing weren't they? Then a sickening thought came to his mind. 'She could have a husband' and his anger returned full force.
Miriam unlike her husband realized that women could be just as dangerous as men, so her anger didn't diminish one bit at the news. "How do you know it was a women?"
"We got a tip from a girl in your daughter's class on which way she went. Luckily one of the markets had cameras installed outside their store front about a year ago to help prevent theft. Now these cameras aren't the greatest; no audio or color, but we have footage of your daughter sitting on a bench outside the store when a women figure appears. Now we could only see the back of the women, she was taller with medium length brown or blackish hair.
"That could be anybody!" Bob continued to shout furious at the police for not knowing more, and angry at himself for not being able to do anything.
"I know Mr. Pataki, but now we have something to go off of and we will review the tape some more to see if we can get any leads." With that the officers headed out the door before they could get screamed at again by Mr. Pataki.
Kidnapped… The word sounded so sinister. Bob used to hear about kidnappings on the news and wouldn't even bat an eye. It wasn't his kid that got kidnapped, why should he care? He sometimes thought the kids probably deserved to be kidnapped anyway. Now that it was his kid, he hoped that everyone out there did care: care enough to be on the lookout for her, care enough to call the police with leads, care enough to go looking for her…care enough that she's gone.
Bob felt like there wasn't enough oxygen in the air. His ears were ringing, and he was struggling to see or move; experts would say he was in shock. He didn't even notice Miriam walk towards the kitchen, to where she kept her alcohol hidden and screw off the top to one of the hard liquors.
Miriam didn't know how long she sat on the kitchen floor drinking bottle after bottle until it was all gone. She couldn't remember if she cried or screamed, she couldn't remember getting sick, or falling asleep in a pile of her vomit. But the one thing Miriam did remember was that her daughter was gone—kidnapped—she wasn't going to come home to tell her to wake up or tell her she was a lousy mother. Helga might never come home again and no amount of alcohol could ever make Miriam forget that.
To be continued….