Part 17

Risa and Charlene had spoken at length about their encounter with Detective Wardell throughout the afternoon. Both girls had come to the conclusion that Wardell was actually a good man with good intentions. Risa was somewhat amazed that her feelings regarding Wardell had shifted so suddenly after their short talk on the front lawn. However, it was comforting for her that Charlene had felt the same way. Wardell seemed less daunting after speaking with him directly and she silently wished him well on his investigation, even if it uncovered unpleasant scenarios regarding her brother.

As if sensing that Risa needed her company, Charlene had canceled her appointment at the nail salon to spend the day at the Pope residence. Charlene had even stayed to have dinner with Risa and her mother. It was a relatively quiet affair since Risa's mom seemed preoccupied - her mind clearly elsewhere. Risa probably was not a viable sounding board as well, since she often caught herself thinking about her conversation with Wardell. But, being somewhat ignored never deterred Charlene from talking. She easily filled the silent phases during the meal with trivial stories and tales of her adventures at the local mall.

It was nearly 10 pm at night by the time Charlene left Risa's house. That's the latest she had stayed at her friend's home since they were in elementary school. In those years the girls would often spend days on end in each others company. They became closer during long sleep over parties and lock-ins.

As they aged, the appeal of staying late at Risa's home waned. As the girl's relaxation activities changed, they found staying at Risa's less and less desirable. Charlene had often wanted to stay at Risa's home to avoid the fighting and arguing that was a nightly occurrence during her parents divorce. Once her parent's marriage was finally dissolved, it made Charlene's house a more enviable place to be.

Charlene's father, who had gained custody of his three children assumed that the best way to cement the affection of his children - was to purchase it. Since her father had the means to accomplish this goal, he rarely spared any expense.

Risa had given Charlene a long and thankful hug when it was time for her friend to go. Though Charlene was at times spacey and sometimes callous, Risa could definitely count her a friend.

Risa sat at her desk and stared blankly out of her bedroom window. She had watched Risa leave a few hours ago and now she subconsciously tapped a charcoal pencil against her sketch pad. Her inspiration had become a fleeting thing since Caleb's disappearance. She used to fill the pages of her sketchbook with doodles and drawings ranging from everyday items she would spot to random patterns that stenciled in her mind.

She watched a pair of head lights turn onto her street and whip around the cul-de-sac before slipping into one of the neighboring driveways.

"Must be Mr. Sumpter," she figured. Mr. Sumpter and his wife lived a couple houses over from the Pope family. Mr. Sumpter was a pharmacist who owned a small drug store downtown. Though his business had suffered some big blows with the economic downturn and the opening of several large multi-state chain pharmacies, Mr. Sumpter stubbornly held on to his livelihood.

A spate of loyal and long time customers kept his business afloat, though Risa always presumed that Mr. Sumpter's near endless optimism was the primary source of his business's survival.

With no children of their own Mr. and Mrs. Sumpter stood steadfast with Risa's mother. They were always willing to lend a hand and always offered their support.

Risa watched as Mr. Sumpter's car plunge into the darkened garage. She noted the red tail lights glaring at her through the growing mist. The steady cascade of the garage door slowly made the tail lights disappear as if a red eyed monster was closing its eyes to go to sleep.

Then something made Risa consciously stop tapping her pencil. She had heard another small tapping sound. She paused for a moment then tapped her pencil against the sketchbook again. She wanted to compare this to the sound she had heard.

Her pencil made a very light thump as it hit the heavy cardboard cover of her sketchbook. It hadn't been the pencil making the tapping sound. Risa paused again and tried to listen for the noise again.

For a moment Risa thought it was odd that such a sound had caught her attention. The Pope residence was an older home and with this age it came with an assortments of creaks and innocent groans as weathered pipes or well worn floor boards gnashed against each other. But this sound was unlike anything she typically heard throughout the house.

Maybe it was her mother doing something in the kitchen? Risa thought, or maybe she was cutting out some coupons from the paper in the family room. Risa quickly dismissed these thoughts since she had watched her mother prepare her nightcap and head off to bed.

Since Caleb's disappearance, Risa's mother had developed the habit of drinking vodka to help her get to sleep. It calmed her nerves, she said. What Risa was not aware of was that her mother had begun to drink this vodka in addition to taking nighttime sleep aids.

Risa leaned back in her chair and strained to hear the noise again.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

There it was again. It was faint and Risa turned her head to try and determine where the sound was coming from. It sounded vaguely like the tap on a key board. It reminded Risa of a person tapping the "spacebar" repeatedly. There was a pause between each tap, though the cadence was fairly even.

Risa stood up and walked away from her desk. She was unsure why she cared about discovering the source of this noise but she felt compelled to find it.

The logical options circulated in her mind. Its probably a small tree branch that stuck in the gutter that's being moved around by the breeze. Or more likely a squirrel on the roof trying to open an acorn. Or maybe a pair of squirrels running back and forth trying to catch each other.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

It sounded again. The rhythm seemed much too uniform for a simple twig being manipulated by a random breeze. The pauses between each tap suggested it wasn't a pair of slow moving squirrels.

Risa moved to her door and slowly edged her head out into the hallway. She looked to her mother's room. The door was ajar and she could see her mother softly sleeping from the light of the lamp on the bedside table. She was comforted by the rattle of her mother's gentle snore. Risa smiled to herself, her mother was always ready to claim that she never snored, and Risa never wanted to correct her.

She turned to her right and looked down the empty hallway. She looked past the metal picture frames that lined the walls, chronicling Caleb's and her childhood. She peered down to the stairwell to the dark first floor entryway.

The sound couldn't have come from downstairs, it couldn't have been loud enough right?

Risa placed her hand against the door frame and waited again for the sound to come.

Tap, tap, tap.

The sound was slightly louder now since she was sticking her head out in the hallway, though it was still quite faint. It was as if the person typing on the keyboard was applying just an ounce more of pressure.

Risa wondered why there had only been three taps instead of the five she had been hearing, but her curiosity was cut short by the realization of where the sound was emanating.

Risa squinted her eyes and shook her head slightly as she forced her mind to reconcile the audio and visual data it had just collected. After another moment's calculation there was no mistaking it. She was sure she knew where the sound was coming from and for some reason her curiosity turned into a sickly sense of foreboding.

She stared hard at the closed door leading into Caleb's room.

Tap, tap, tap.

Part 16

August just stared blankly at Elvis's face. He wasn't sure why he could just answer "yes" but his mouth refused to form the word. Was he afraid of acknowledging what both of them so obviously could see? Why was he treating this package delivery like it was the old "Bloody Mary" urban fable. As if reading the name "Caleb Pope" aloud would usher in some sort of fearsome reckoning. August exhaled then shook his head. He tried to answer Elvis in his most manner-of-fact voice.

"Yeah, it's addressed to Caleb Pope. He probably placed an order a long time ago and it just took a while to get delivered."

It was more the tone of August's voice rather than the name he uttered that grabbed Merriam's attention. She peaked up from the middle of her text message and looked over to her two friends still fussing over some box that August had dropped. She shut her cell phone allowing the unsent message to be automatically stored into her drafts folder. "I gotta remember to send that later", she thought absently before walking up to the boys.

"What are you two idiots doing? Are you trying to break the box some more? What is it anyways? Are that some of those nudie comics that you both love so much?"

"No, it's nothing like that", August blushed slightly remembering that Merriam had caught him reading a particularly salacious comic book once. He couldn't really remember the plot, but then again that comic was about a young bikini clad demon hunter who often walked around with a sword a little else.

"Look at the addressee Merriam!" Elvis could hardly contain his excitement, "It's addressed to Caleb Pope! As-in the boy who disappeared! As-in the boy that ran away."

"May have run away," August corrected. He felt the need to defend Caleb's honor, even though he did not know him. It was more of an instinctual action on Risa's behalf no doubt.

"So," if Merriam was intrigued - she did not show it, "who cares? Like Augie said, that Caleb guy probably ordered it a long time ago". August hated the nickname 'Augie' and armed with this knowledge, Merriam vowed to call him that as much as possible. She sauntered over and picked up the box. Under August and Elvis' shocked eyes, Merriam gave the box a quick shake back and forth. A terrible crackling noise came from the box - the sound of shifting glass pieces.

"Yep," Merriam said nodding, "you definitely broke something Augie."

"Put it down! Don't make it worse!" August did not mean to snap and sound extremely upset, but in reality he was angry. Not really angry at Merriam for her continual prodding, but more so at himself for his earlier bout of clumsiness. Merriam hastily put the box back down on the corner and raised her arms in mock surrender.

"Okay, okay! There it's back safely on the counter."

"So what are you gonna do?" Elvis said putting a hand on August's shoulder. "Isn't it strange that on the very day Sonrisa, as-in the sister of the said missing boy, pays you a visit then you receive a package meant for that same boy? You gotta admit, that's kinda freaky!"

"It's just coincidence," August said waving a hand dismissively, "the only strange thing is that the delivery happened so late. I was just about to close up."

"If science teaches us anything," Elvis said unabated, "it's that there are no coincidences."

"Oh stop, no more of your off-the-wall theories. I'm sure you're going to say that this is the 'universe' trying to get August together with his school boy crush," Merriam added while rolling her eyes.

August flinched. He had forgotten that he had told Merriam about his passing infatuation with Risa. His unrequited affection for a younger girl was not something he wanted to share too often. Especially since his chances of landing such a girl on his arm were slim to none. He had been hoping that Merriam would not have made that connection, but with a unique name like 'Sonrisa' and with Merriam's research sharpened mind, that mystery was solved quite quickly.

"Well, she is quite fetching" Elvis said grinning, "and if the 'universe' wants August to hook up with a girl as cute as that, well, who are we to question the 'universe'?"

"I'm pretty sure that whatever powers that be drives this universe," Merriam quipped, "be it some all powerful deity or blind random fate, that it has much more important things to take care of rather than August's love life. You know like storms or preventing nuclear wars, no offense Augie."

"None taken," August shrugged then began to tune out his companion's dialogue. Elvis and Merriam continued on into an animated conversation regarding the possibilities of either an omnipotent god or random predetermined fate.

August looked at the box again and was filled with remorse. "Here might be the very last thing Risa and her mom could have to remember Caleb by, and I broke it. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"So what are you going to do with it?" Merriam's question thankfully broke August's moment of self reproach.

"Well, I have to call Risa and let her know a package arrived for her brother." August answered.

"Wait, but you said she didn't leave a number when she dropped by - so you said," Elvis began, "and I know they aren't listed anymore, they had to taken the number off of public records after the press came and kept trying to ask all of those questions. How will you get a hold of Risa?"

"Wait Elvis, shouldn't the 'universe' just magically teleport a cell phone with Risa's phone number already programed in it?" Once Merriam found something to tease them about it took her a while to relent. Elvis pretended to swing an elbow towards Merriam's head. She in-turn playfully dodged before launching a fake kick towards Elvis's shin.

August smiled broadly. His friend's thought he was being entertained by their impromptu kung-fu theater performance but August was actually please with himself by thinking of a way to get a hold of Risa quickly. His cousin Charlene would know Risa's number. Yes, definitely Charlene, she could give him the information he needed.