15

A few months later, we had the concert. My parents attended, but they didn’t go together. The dwarves attended too. After the concert, Christian and I were talking when our families found us. My parents ignored each other, but they met the dwarves. Christian introduced the dwarves. Angus was his Dad. The others were Milton, James, Aaron, Jeremy, Gideon and Sean. 

    Our parents complimented us on our biggest concert and doing a good job. I noticed Angus was glad the concert went so well, but he wasn’t surprised that Christian was able to do a good job.

    Milton hugged Christian.

    He kept telling him he did a great job. He kept complimenting all of the musicians.

    After we received the compliments from our parents, Christian and I shared a look about how our families thought we were great, even if we still had issues. All of the musicians were looking forward to the next concert.

    By then, everyone had gotten used to the divorce a long time ago, even though we couldn’t help but feel like it was a waste, since things had been going so well.

    Two weeks ago, Dad started dating a woman named Eileen. Eileen had been very interested in meeting me. She was so excited and hugged me. She talked to me when Dad invited us both to dinner one night. Later, Dad told me it was weird that Eileen seemed more interested in meeting me for the first time than she was in seeing him for the first time.

    “Maybe it was because she didn’t know you,” I reasoned. “But, at least, when she met me she knew I was related to you and she knew you by then.”

    But we both found it weird.

    Dad and Eileen continued to date for a while and Eileen was always asking about me and wanted to see me. She was nice to me. Dad once explained that Eileen used to be married and had kids. She still saw them. She liked that I was their age because it felt to her like she was picking up where she left off. I thought that was weird because Eileen still saw her kids, so where did she leave them?Dad said she didn’t want to talk about it.

    One day, five weeks after Dad started dating Eileen, I couldn’t find Mom. I looked everywhere in the house more than once. I called her, but I found her phone in her room.

    I panicked a little.

    But I told myself maybe Mom went somewhere and forgot her phone.

    I told Dad and Mom’s friends. They looked all day.

    I was panicking more and more.

    I went to the country club where Mom worked and asked if anyone had seen her. They reminded me that she didn’t work that day.

    I was getting frustrated because I was desperate for an answer.

    I had to tell the police.

    They said they would look for Mom.

    My heart sank.

    If the police needed to look for her, that meant it was very serious and maybe something really bad had happened.

    I was afraid Mom was kidnapped or killed.

    I tried to make myself feel better by saying that didn’t have to be the case. Then, I realized if it wasn’t kidnapping, then why would she disappear like that and without her phone? And without anyone knowing where she was?If a human had kidnapped her, that would be bad enough. But if it was a ghoul, the police might not be able to save her, since the ghouls were in charge. And they were allowed to do that any way they liked. Being the smartest species meant they made the right decisions. The police and fire department were only able to help after the attacks, but they couldn’t fight or stop the ghouls.

    My heart hurt.

    If it turned out the ghouls took Mom, I would have to rescue her myself. Christian could help and that made me feel better.

    But what if the ghouls had already killed her?

    And ghouls outnumbered humans by twenty-to-one, so two people couldn’t take them all.

    Dad wanted to spend the day with me because I was sad, but I told him I wanted to be alone today and I would see him tomorrow. I didn’t think he would need comfort, since he divorced Mom. He was still worried because he would have worried about anyone. He was also worried about me.

    When I got home, I waited until I was in my room, sat on the bed and cried.