Now You See Her

Chapter 5

Monday—Day 1

Monday—Day 1Reece turned the key in the ignition for the third time, fearing that it would finally flood the engine. There was no auto-choke option for her—it was a miracle that the four wheels stayed on. The engine turned with the bad attitude of a churlish teenager reluctant to get out of bed in the morning. If it could, it would have groaned Leave me alone.

Leave me alone‘Start, goddammit,’ she shouted, pounding her hands on the steering wheel. She was late, and the school principal had already had words with her about cutting it close at school pickup.

‘We simply can’t leave children unattended at the school gates, Mrs… Ms… Miss Norman,’ she’d faltered. ‘The teachers make themselves available as supervisors, but last week you were ten minutes late. That’s simply unacceptable.’

Reece knew it was unacceptable, but try telling that to her d**k of a boss at the local gas station. He wouldn’t let her finish her shift until the guy who was due to take over turned up to relieve her. She stood there looking at the digital counter on the register, counting down the minutes before she became an unfit parent. If she walked, she’d lose the job, and she simply couldn’t afford to do that. Welfare had already caught her scent and she could hear the barking of their hungry dogs far off in the distance.

Reece tried the key one more time. She’d done it before, and she’d do it again if she had to. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d run from the gas station to the school gates and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last. Up to now, the school principal hadn’t bothered to ask her why she was late. She assumed it was because she was Reece Norman and… well, a woman like her would be late, wouldn’t she? Having three kids by three different fathers—what more did the school principal expect?

Reece placed her hand on the key once again and held it there, hardly daring to turn it. She loved her three kids. It was their fathers that she didn’t like so much. She’d do anything for her children. It was just a shame that the men who’d helped her bring them into the world didn’t feel the same way. There was not a lot she could do about that, other than carry on doing what she was doing. And that meant taking any shift she could get her hands on at Curly’s gas station and bringing up her kids as best she could. It was a job that paid, and it didn’t matter that she couldn’t read.

The engine turned on begrudgingly. Reece had almost given up all hope when something sparked somewhere and kicked the engine into life. The running motor was the only positive thing that had happened to her that day. That’s as good as it got for Reece Norman. The entire car shook and rattled and a blast of dense, black fumes shot out of the exhaust as she moved the gearshift out of the park position to start the journey to the school.

The school run was a finely-timed cross between The Hunger Games and an elite sport. It was a fight to the death to grab a parking place somewhere in the vicinity of the school gate. The stay-at-home moms with cleaners and gardeners were always first in line, fragrant and calm, ready to greet their little darlings with gifts of candy and promises of after-school treats. Next in line were the walkers, the moms and pops lucky enough to be able to walk there and back. Then there were the working parents, those who had to balance a working life with bringing up a family, no small feat and a constant challenge and pressure.

Finally, there was Reece, who barely earned enough to keep the show on the road, with no stake in life great enough to control any of the mayhem around her. When she did finally arrive at the school gate, she was forced to drive around the block until she could find some space big enough to be able to abandon her car for the five minutes required to pick up the kids.

That’s how it all played out on the day Poppy disappeared. For Reece Norman, what was one more day when the car was acting up, her boss was using controlling behavior, she had to cook for four on a budget of just over four dollars until she got paid, and all she wanted to do was go to bed and cry for the rest of the day?

The car shuddered as the automatic transmission engaged and took a small lurch forward. Even that was a small victory. Sometimes it missed the gear—another problem Reece was thrusting to the back of her mind. Something else to deal with later.

By the time she reached the school, some of the moms were leaving. Shallow Falls Elementary even boasted pickup dads, ripped guys in shirts that were opened two buttons down, holding the hands of their kids and chatting about their school day like it was the most natural thing on earth. It was, of course, but the men in Reece’s life hadn’t quite managed to get the hang of the twenty-first century. It was a mystery to them, as bemusing as building a piece of IKEA furniture and as challenging as seeking a profound moment in an episode of The Kardashians. Reece envied their lives, seemingly so simple and carefree. What she’d do for just one day of that.

She bumped the tire as she hurriedly swung the vehicle off the road into a space that had become available, thanks to a very slow-driving retiree who was in the process of vacating it. Reece set the emergency brake and hesitated before turning off the engine. If she’d been able to leave work on time, she might have gotten closer to the school gate. Then the kids would have run up to her, so she wouldn’t have to risk turning it off.

She was too far from the gate for that, so she reluctantly turned the key and switched off the engine. If it didn’t start again, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to walk the kids all the way through the town, right to the far end where fields and woodland met concrete and brick, on the far boundary of Shallow Falls where their trailer was located.

Reece didn’t bother locking the car. If anybody tried to steal it, at least they’d get it started for her. They’d be doing her a favor. She wasn’t even sure if she’d renewed the insurance; she just prayed that she never hit anything. A bill like that could break her. If she was insured, it would only pay the price of towing to the junkyard anyway. Nobody in their right mind would want to take that heap off her hands as a going concern.

She stepped onto the sidewalk and began to run as fast as she could through the stream of parents and children who’d managed to leave the school on time. Nobody acknowledged her or gave her a cheerful hello; she might as well have been invisible as she made her way to the gate.

Toni and Megan were waiting by the large concrete pillars which formed the grand entrance to the school, over which were carved the words Shallow Falls Elementary School. They were used to seeing their mom flying around one of the two corners available to her, always recognizable by her red face, her gaunt, tired look, and her threadbare jeans.

Shallow Falls Elementary School‘Hey, girls, where’s Poppy?’ she asked, kissing them both on the head, then kneeling to give them a hug. It was this feeling that made her do everything that she did. The sight of her kids at the end of the day, and the tight, loving hugs they gave her because they were pleased to see her, all made it worthwhile.

‘No sign of her yet,’ Toni replied, shrugging.

‘Maybe she’s still in class?’ Megan suggested.

Reece held back from scolding them, not wanting to spoil such a lovely welcome.

‘Girls, I’ve told you, we have to take more care of Poppy. You must try to look out for her. The world’s not as straightforward for her as it is for you.’

She was as gentle as she could be. She’d asked them before to look out for Poppy, to make sure she was waiting with them when she arrived.

‘We did go looking for her, Mom,’ Megan said, ‘but we couldn’t see her.’

‘Wait here a moment,’ Reece said. ‘I’m just going to check with the teacher on duty. What’s her name? Mrs. Willoughby, isn’t it?’

The girls nodded. She could see guilt in their eyes, knowing they’d let her down.

‘It’s okay, girls, she’ll be around somewhere,’ Reece reassured them.

Mrs. Willoughby was just turning to leave her post, having assessed that all children were accounted for and her teaching duties were done for the day.

‘Mrs. Willoughby… Mrs. Willoughby,’ Reece called. The teacher had her hand on the entrance door to the school. There was something about crossing the threshold to that place that gave Reece the shivers. Maybe it was the fact they’d failed to teach her to read there, dismissing her dyslexia as pure stubbornness and a general lack of intelligence and application. Those were the precise words used on the report card. Walking through those doors was like stepping through the fiery gates of Hell for Reece, and the judgment she received in there was equally harsh.

Mrs. Willoughby turned and looked her up and down, making every assumption that was needed before giving her dismissive response. Reece saw how she observed the faded, overwashed T-shirt, the threadbare jeans going through at the knees—not as some trendy fashion statement, but because they’d worn out the good, old-fashioned way—and the fatigued, unbranded sneakers whose soles were partly detached. The teacher took it all in in an instant and asked pompously: ‘How may I help you, Ms Norman? Don’t tell me you’ve lost Poppy again?’

In that moment Reece felt like the same six-year-old school child who’d tried to tell her teacher that she simply couldn’t make any sense of the words on the page, because they all looked jumbled.

‘She’s not with Megan and Toni, and I wondered if she was still in the classroom.’

‘Ms Norman, I believe Principal Murphy has already had a conversation with you about coming so late to pick up your children.’

‘Yes, but please, you know Poppy’s deafness means she sees the world differently to the other kids, sometimes it’s hard to…’

‘Ms Norman, you and Poppy both know the rules about end of school. She knows to wait in the playground until a parent or caregiver arrives. She’s not here now; she must have gone.’

‘Please, Mrs. Willoughby, please will you check in the school?’

The teacher paused for a moment and looked at Reece. They all knew Poppy had special needs. It didn’t make a lot of difference in the school day, not at her age. She was still happy to run around and play all day, and she and her little friends seemed to communicate just fine.

‘I’ll check inside,’ she said, softening at last. ‘I’ll be out in one moment. Can you and the girls walk around the block and make sure she’s not wandered off somewhere?’

Reece nodded and ran back to Megan and Toni. As she did so, she felt a churn in her stomach, not unlike the uncomfortable grinding of the car engine. Poppy hadn’t done this before. She was prone to wandering off in the playground, in a world of her own, but she knew the drill, and was sensible enough not to walk off down the street.

‘Megan, check the sidewalk on that side of the school. I’ll take the other side. Toni, check the playground, and make sure she’s not in the nature area or somewhere like that. When you’re done, come back to the entrance and wait for Mrs. Willoughby.’

Megan headed off as instructed, and Toni ran off into the playground. Reece walked around the opposite corner, anxious, a rising panic welling within her. Some parents were still standing chatting before they got into their cars. More desperate now, Reece ran up to them, interrupting, asking if they’d seen a little girl with a patchwork dress and hearing aids. Each time, they looked at her as if she were some druggie asking for money. They glared dismissively at her, shrugging their shoulders, anxious to get rid of her and continue their chattering.

It was another half-hour before the first call went into the police; half an hour to determine that Poppy Norman had gone missing. She wasn’t in the school building, she wasn’t hiding in the grounds, and she hadn’t wandered off along the sidewalk. She had just disappeared, and it seemed that nobody had seen anything. Reece Norman’s bad day had just gotten a whole lot worse.