RRRRIIIINNNGGG!!! RRRRIIIINNNGGG!!! I slowly opened my eyes and looked at the digital clock next to me. 9:40. I reached towards the dresser and grabbed the phone. “Hello?” I asked groggily.
“Hello, this is Lisa Walsh from the Orlando Hospital, may I speak to Mrs. Amy Carter please?”
I snapped to attention when I heard the woman tell me where she was from, and immediately started thinking of the worst. “Yes, this is her. Is my friend okay?”
“Well, actually... we’re not sure,” the woman hesitantly responded. “Miss Larkins was supposed to report for therapy this morning and when she didn’t come I went up to her room and found that she was gone.”
“Gone?!” I could tell that the color must have been draining from my face; I felt very light-headed. “What do you mean she’s gone?!”
“Calm down miss, it’s going to be all right.”
“How the hell do you figure that?!” I yelled into the phone, at the moment not caring if I woke Nick or the girls. “She’s a recovering alcoholic and might be suicidal and you think it’s going to be all right?!”
“Miss, you’re going to have to calm down if I’m going to talk to you. I’ve already informed her boyfriend, Brian Littrell, I believe. He told me to get in contact with you and to tell you to meet him at his home as soon as you can.”
“Oh, okay. Thank you. Good-bye.” I quickly hung up the phone, jumped out of bed, and pulled a pair of jeans and a shirt out of my dresser.
“Amy, honey, what are you doing?” Nick mumbled as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“I’m going to Brian’s, Kari got out of the hospital and we have to find her. Do me a favor and feed the girls, they’ve got to be up by now.”
“But Aim, we have a meeting with management in...” Nick glanced at the clock. “An hour.”
“So, take the girls with you. And if you can’t, Nicole said she’d watch them at any time. Just pack their diaper bags and throw in some bottles and toys and they’ll be fine.” I finished changing, quickly ran a brush through my hair, kissed Nick good-bye, and grabbed my purse. “I’m sorry baby, but this is important. I’ll call you if anything comes up.”
“All right. Good luck Amy!”
“We’ll need it,” I mumbled as I headed out to my car.
* * * * *
I knocked on the door to the apartment Brian shared with A.J. The latter answered it, looking sleepy and pissed off. “Amy, what are you doing here so early?” A.J. whined. “Nicky should be at your place, ‘cause he’s not here.”
“He is home dipshit, I came to get Brian.”
“Oh really?” A small smile crept across his face. “You guys taking a stab at a threesome?”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“No thanks, it requires too much energy. Brian is in his room.” A.J. pointed to a door towards the back of the large apartment. “But, if you ever need a more experienced man...”
I won’t call you.” I shoved past A.J. and walked through the messy apartment and knocked on the door to Brian’s room. He pulled open his door and welcomed me in. “Wow, I didn’t think you really owned a waterbed,” I remarked as I looked around his room.
“Yup, I got it for fifty bucks!” he said proudly. “But seriously, what are we gonna do about Kari? I have no idea even where to begin to look for her.”
“I’m not sure either.” I plopped down on his waterbed and tried to think like Kari. If I was a suicidal alcoholic, where would I go?
Suddenly, it hit me. Where else does Kari keep all of her liquor and things that she could use to hurt herself? Her apartment. “Brian, let’s go!” I said, pulling him from a chair in the corner of the room. “I know where Kari is!”
“Where?” he asked as I dragged him through the apartment and towards the door.
“You’ll see!”
* * * * *
“See?” I asked triumphantly as I flung open the door to Kari’s apartment. “Kari, come ou-”
“Um, Amy? There’s no one here!”
I took a good look around the living room and saw it was exactly the way Nick and I had found it after we came back from Hawaii. I ran into her room and saw that she wasn’t, and probably hadn’t been here since the first incident.
“Then if she’s not here, where the hell is she?” I wondered out loud as Brian and I left and shut the door behind us.
Brian sighed as we got on the elevator to head back to my car. “I wish I knew Amy.”
