Six weeks. We have been looking for six weeks, and not a soul has seen or heard from Katja. I have exhausted everything I know. Red and I even broke into that apartment again while Santorelli was at work one day, and there was nothing there-no sign that Katja had ever been there. Nobody in the building could remember seeing her. We spoke with the folks at the factory, searched her old neighborhood, and spoke with the people at her old school. We had kept up with police reports and morgues. The Meyers even took out an ad in the paper-best selling day of the year as every newsie in Brooklyn sold hard and drew every customer's attention tot he ad. I spoke with Mr. Donovan and even mentioned Katja's disappearance in vague terms in a letter to the governor, all to no avail. We were beyond baffled. Many of the boys assumed she had skipped town, but Ingrid, Red, Roller, and I knew better-there was one factor that had me sure she was still in New York. Jimmy. Nothing in the world could have made her leave him voluntarily. The ony thing I didn't do was report the apparent break in. Had Katja come, taken her own clothes and the book, and left? Had someone else? I put Roller and the dog back in that room with strict orders to come get me if anyone tried to come in, but nobody ever did.
As April dragged into May, my helplessness and frustration were boiling over. I did keep up my selling and resumed my studies, mostly for distraction, but I was surly and unapproachable more often than not. My reputation, already bigger than it needed to be, grew to unreasonable and epic proportions, but I hardly noticed. I focused on information. I kept Katja's room clean and kept up the Fischers' grave. I did one other thing-I bought that cloak I had been meaning to buy for Katja and hung it on the peg by the back door. For some reason, seeing it hang there every day waiting for her kept me sane, but I didn't know how much longer I could keep this up.
Gradually, hope faded into numbness. I was still hopeful, still vigilant, and still working tirelessly to find her. However, I felt like a part of me-the part that she had awoken in me-was dying. I needed Katja, and her absence was slowly killing me.
AN: Thanks for the continued reviews. They keep me motivated and make me feel like someone cares about Katja as much as I do!