chapter 7
758 Words
London. Melissa was in London. When Mary told Melissa she was going there, Melissa was shocked. Why head to London?
The look of the country after she got off the plane was amazing. Beautiful.
Only in her wildest dreams had Melissa imagined visiting London. Or Paris. But the writer's retreat in Paris had been booked.
Her phone rang when she got off the plane. It was her brother. Again. He hadn't stopped calling her lately. She refuse to answer him, though. She had nothing to say to Perry.
He had been the one to hang up on Melissa. Not the other way around. SO why was he so insistent on calling her?
She looked at the phone. Perhaps she should answer it. Perry wouldn't give up until he heard from Melissa.
"Perry. Could you please stop calling me?" She said, a bitterness heard in her voice when she answered the phone.
"It's Dad."
"What about him? What happened?"
"He's still missing. But well...they found some blood in his car. It's expected that something happened to him. That he didn't run away."
"When did this news come? Who told you?"
"The police. They came to my house yesterday. They were looking for you. Where are you anyways?"
"Um, it's a long story. Not sure how to explain."
"Does it have to do with writing?"
She wanted to lie to him. Perry hated the fact that Melissa liked to write. He thought her stories were awful. However, if she lied to him, things would turn out bad. He would tell Melissa's publicist. And then what would happen.
Melissa shook her head, trying to get rid of the obtrusive thought. How would she deal with him.
"Actually, yes. I'm on a writing retreat." She admitted. Then quietly, as if she was ashamed of where she was, she added, "In London."
"London? Why London?"
"There wasn't anywhere else I could go. Not that was available so close to Christmas." Melissa explained.
"You could have called me. I would have tried to figure something out."
Melissa wasn't sure if he was lying. She asked, astonished by Perry's suggestion, "Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Like where? The only other place I would have wanted to visit was -"
"Paris." Perry interrupted.
Melissa smiled. She was surprised Perry had remembered that from their childhood.
"Exactly."
Melissa walked around the airport as she talked on the phone. She saw a group of people standing somewhere near an escalator: London Writer's Retreat. It was the group she had been looking for! Finally, she had found them!
"Sorry, Perry I gotta go."
Melissa hung up the phone.
She ran over to the group of people holding the sign she had spotted earlier. They didn't look like writer's. Sometimes, thought, looks could be deceiving.
These people - who looked different from each other - had something in common. Something that might not have been obvious to someone looking in on them but that probably was obvious once you talked to them.
She greeted them and then acted as if she had known them her whole life. Melissa told a joke and another person in the group - Matt from Spain - laughed at the joke. She smiled. Perhaps her agent was right. This trip was just what she needed after a stressful and emotional year.
Spending Christmas without her family would be hard, though. How could she handle this? Her father missing, her in another country and Perry being disrespectful to her.
To top that all, her agent and editor were both constantly bothering her about the upcoming deadline. It was more than a month away but with the slow progress of her story, Melissa wasn't sure if she could finish the story in time.
Suddenly, she remembered something. Her purse. She had left it at the baggage claim.
"I'll be right back!" She yelled as she ran for the baggage claim area.
Her purse was no longer there. Where could it have gone? The unclaimed area? But she had only left her purse for a few minutes. How could it already be considered unclaimed?
There! She spotted her purse and grabbed it. Her phone was ringing from inside the purse but Melissa didn't answer it. She wasn't into dealing with other people as long as she had to worry about the deadline.
She went back over to the group. "Sorry about that."
"It's fine." The leader said. He lead the group out of the plane station.
Melissa had no idea where the retreat was located. She didn't care, either.
- Writer
