Abandoned (3 page)

A small smile slipped across his face.
“No worries,” he said. “Is there anything else you remember?
Anything that seemed strange or unusual?”

A puzzled expression crossed Lauren’s
face and she looked down at Sweetie sitting calm beside her. “There
was one weird thing,” she said. “I wouldn’t have known it was the
stalker if Sweetie hadn’t growled. I thought it was just another
person at the park. It was only when Sweetie acted interested that
I wondered if it was the person who was following me.”

“Do you think Sweetie knew him? Or her?”
asked Lauren’s dad.

Lauren glanced up sharply. Her dad’s
voice sounded different. A little breathless. “I don’t see how she
could. Unless someone’s been sneaking around here while I’m at
school, trying to make friends with her.” She paused for a moment
and frowned. “No, it wasn’t as if Sweetie knew who it was. More
like she wasn’t sure. Or maybe she heard the click of the camera
and just wanted to let me know about it.”

Her dad leaned on the table and rubbed
his eyes with both hands, then ran his fingers through his hair.
“Okay, now here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll drive you to school
every day and make arrangements for you to go to Piper’s house
afterward until I can pick you up. We can walk Sweetie together
when I get home.” He dropped his hands and looked at Lauren with
worried eyes. “And next week, as soon as summer vacation starts, I
want you to go to your Aunt April and Uncle Chris’s.”

Lauren groaned. “For how long?”

“Until we get this straightened
out.”

“But that could be all summer!”
protested Lauren.

“It could be.”

“But Dad, I have plans…”

“No ‘buts’. This is serious and we’ve
got to be careful. I’ll find the person who’s been following you.
And I’ll find out why.”

“But Piper was going to have a big party
for me on my birthday, remember?” Lauren hoped her voice didn’t
sound as whiny to her dad as it did to her. “Her mom already said
we could have it at her house. We were inviting all our friends and
they have the swimming pool and the hot tub. And we were going to
eat tons of pizza. And then you were going to take us to the
movies. It was going to be so much fun.”

“Sorry, Kiddo, but we can’t take any
chances.”

Lauren looked down at Sweetie, curled on
the floor by her feet. “We’ve been planning it for ages,” she said,
then looked up hopefully. “Couldn’t I just come home for the party?
Turning thirteen is important, Dad. And you’re going to miss me if
I’m away for two whole months. And so will Sweetie.”

Lauren’s dad sighed. “I know I will.
Okay, I’ll see if I can get a week off work and drive out to pick
you up. It’ll be nice to see April, Chris, and the girls anyway.
But if we haven’t found the stranger by then, you’ll have to go
back to Misty Lake after the party.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Lauren smiled. “But
you’ve got to find the stranger and fast too, okay? And the police
will help. And really, I mean
fast.
Misty Lake’s in the middle of nowhere. What’ll
I do there for the whole summer?”

“Hike. Canoe on the lake.”

“And hike some more and canoe some more
and, hey, I know, hike and canoe on the lake.”

“Some people pay big money to go to
places that are so peaceful,” said her dad, raising his
eyebrows.

“But for two months?” asked Lauren.
“It’s going to be so boring.”

“I think you’ll be surprised. Remember,
your Aunt April and I grew up in Misty Lake and so did your mom. We
always found things to do,” he added.

One side of Lauren’s mouth raised into a
lopsided smile. “Yeah. Hike and canoe.”

“You forgot swimming in the lake,” he
said, grinning, and reaching out, he ruffled her hair.

“Hey! It’s messy enough already.” Lauren
ducked and then reached out with a fist. She punched him lightly in
the ribs. “Don’t mess with me,” she warned.

“You punched me! I can’t believe it! You
actually punched me. Ooh, that smarts,” her dad said and pressed
his hand against his shoulder.

“I punched you in the ribs, not in the
shoulder,” said Lauren and cocked her head. “You better stop
teasing or I’ll punch you again.”

Her dad laughed, then his face slowly
became serious. “I’m going to miss you, Kiddo. It won’t be the same
around here without you.”

The smile disappeared from Lauren's face
too. She dropped her hand to her side and ran her fingers through
Sweetie’s hair. “Really, Dad, promise me you’ll find out what’s
happening as fast as you can, okay?”

“I’ll do my best,” he said and ruffled
her hair again. “Now let’s get going. We’ll drop by the police
station and tell them our story, then we’ll hit the beach.”

Filling out the report at the
police station took longer than both Lauren and her dad thought it
would, and they didn’t get to the beach until late evening. As
Sweetie ran around them in circles, Lauren and her dad walked
toward the sunset. The pinks and apricots, blues and purples in the
sky were a beautiful end to the hot day. They stopped when they
reached the water.

“It’s amazing the detail you remembered
about the car,” said Lauren’s dad, looking over the waves
reflecting the sky’s glory.

“Well, I saw the car a lot more than the
stalker,” said Lauren, jumping back as a wave washed toward
her.

“Yes, but they were even able to
pinpoint the year it was made from your description. You’ve made
their job a lot easier. Maybe we’ll even know within a week or
two.”

Lauren smiled. She felt hopeful too. The
police officer had sounded confident they would find the car soon,
as long as the person didn’t leave town.

That night, when they got home from the
beach, Lauren’s dad phoned his sister. Lauren’s Aunt April was
overjoyed when he asked if Lauren could come for the summer. She
asked to talk to Lauren and then went on and on about how much fun
they would all have. Her two daughters, Charity and Kjerstina, were
apparently starting a new project and Aunt April was excited about
getting Lauren involved. But she wouldn’t tell Lauren what the
project was. All she said was that it was a secret that Lauren
would love.

I don’t
know if I can take any more intrigue,
thought Lauren, but
she didn’t say anything. Her aunt was so cheery about her coming to
visit and she didn’t want squash her enthusiasm by letting her know
she wasn’t as thrilled about the summer as Aunt April was.

All that weekend, her dad stuck close
beside her and by the time she saw Piper at school on Monday
morning, Lauren felt she was going to go crazy. Except in her
bedroom, she hadn’t had any privacy at all. It was like her dad
didn’t want to let her out of his sight, even when they were at
home.

Piper was still upset about the birthday
party. “But half the fun is planning and talking about it
together,” she complained.

“We can talk on the phone,” Lauren
replied. “Aunt April won’t mind. And when Dad drives out to Misty
Lake to pick me up, you should come.”

“What about when you go out next week
too?” asked Piper. “I’ve never been to Misty Lake.”

“You’re not missing a whole lot, except
seeing every shade of green in existence. There are tons of trees
out there. But you can’t come. Dad doesn’t have time to drive me,
so I’m flying out on one of those little airplanes. It would be
awesome if you could though. Misty Lake would be a lot more fun if
you were there!”

Lauren looked for the car after school
while she waited for Piper’s mom to pick them up. It was nowhere to
be seen. That evening, after her dad came home and they ate supper,
Lauren and her dad took Sweetie to the park for her run.

At first Lauren didn’t see the car
parked at the end of the parking lot, because it was hidden behind
a gray van. But when the van pulled out of the lot, Lauren caught
her breath.

“Dad! There it is!” Her voice was shrill
as she pointed.

Without hesitating, he sprinted toward
the car. Lauren watched in dismay as the car raced out of its
parking slot and accelerated toward the exit. When her dad realized
he wasn’t going to catch it, he stopped. Lauren watched as he
fished a pen out of his pocket and jotted down a few things on his
hand. Then he hurried back to her.

“Did you get the license plate number?”
she asked, excited.

“I got the first three numbers. We’ll
phone the constable as soon as we get home. Maybe you won’t have to
go at all. Or at least, not until I can go with you like we
normally do.”

“That would be awesome,” replied
Lauren.

But they didn’t hear anything from the
police or see the car for the rest of the week. Lauren guessed the
driver was spooked by how close her dad had come to discovering his
identity and was hiding out, waiting for them to be less vigilant.
But the driver didn’t know Lauren was going to be flying to Misty
Lake on Saturday morning.

On Friday night Lauren packed. She threw
her clothes and toothbrush, hairbrush, and other things into the
suitcase and squished them down. Then she put the books her dad
bought her the day before on top of the clothes. Last of all, she
lifted a small painting off her wall. She couldn’t leave it behind.
The painting was only twelve inches wide and eight inches tall and
Lauren knew every square inch of it, every brush stroke. It showed
a man and woman, her dad and mom, sitting cross-legged on the
floor. A little girl with bright red hair was between them, walking
from her father’s arms to her mother’s. Lauren’s mom had painted
the portrait from memory to commemorate Lauren’s first steps and it
was Lauren’s most prized possession. The expression of joy on each
face always made Lauren feel better.

She pulled her softest t-shirt from the
pile of clothes and wrapped it around the painting and placed it on
top of the books. Then she pulled the thumbtack from the wall and
pushed it into a small pocket in the suitcase.

That night, Lauren and her dad stayed
home. They rented three comedies and planned to watch them one
after the other and eat tons of popcorn, but halfway through the
second movie, Lauren’s eyelids became heavy. She struggled to keep
them open and finally decided to close them for just two
minutes.

The next thing Lauren knew, she was
waking up. She was in her bedroom, tucked under her covers, in the
same clothes she was wearing the night before. She groaned and
stretched, then heard her dad coming down the hallway, singing in
his off-key voice.

“Wake up, get out of bed. Wake up, you
sleepyhead. When the red, red robin comes a-bob-bob-bobbing
along.”

“I’m up,” Lauren said and then, when he
kept on singing, she yelled it and pulled the pillow over her head.
“This is supposed to be the weekend!”

“Sorry, Kiddo,” his voice came through
the door. Lauren noticed he didn’t sound very sorry. “We’ve got to
get going if you want to stop at Mirabella’s.”

Lauren groaned. They had to be at the
airport by nine to catch the plane and her dad was taking her out
to breakfast at Mirabella’s, her favorite restaurant, before the
flight. She glanced at her watch. They would have to hurry.

“I’ll be ready in a couple of minutes,”
she called and sat up in bed.

Everything at Mirabella’s was bright and
colourful. Big paintings of plump red cats and fat green horses
covered the walls at odd angles. The walls were all a royal blue
and the ceiling was covered with painted stars. Multi-coloured
sashes draped across the tall windows, making the curtains look
like a rainbow. Lauren always wondered if the owner of Mirabella’s
was a gypsy.

Lauren’s dad teased her all through
breakfast about the boys she was going to meet in Misty Lake. At
first Lauren argued with him, saying all the boys were interested
in Kjerstina and Charity, but he wouldn’t stop teasing her until
she laughingly suggested that he was the one looking for a
girlfriend and that he wanted to get rid of his daughter for the
summer so she wouldn’t get in the way. “Sorry Dad,” she said, when
she saw the teasing twinkle in his eyes fade away. “I was just
joking.”

“You know I really don’t want you to go,
don’t you Lauren?” he asked, his voice hopeful. Almost
pleading.

“Yeah, I know.” And she did know. She
had no doubt. Her dad loved her more than anything. He’d always
been devoted to her, just like she was to him. Ever since her mom
had died, it was just the two of them against the world. And
Sweetie. “It’s just that I’m going to miss you. It’ll be weird
being there without you. I’ve never been there before, all alone.
It’s going to be so boring.”

“You’re not going to be alone. Charity
and Kjerstina can’t wait until you get there. And you know how your
Aunt is. And besides, I think you’ll be surprised at how un-boring
it is.”