Maggie woke with a feeling of wrongness in the apartment. She listened for a moment, straining for sounds of her roommate, Jennifer, who always got up hours before Maggie.
That was one of the many differences in the two young women, but instead of causing dissention, their differences complemented each other. This morning nothing suggested Jennifer or anyone else was in the apartment with Maggie.
"Oh, well, maybe she got lucky last night," Maggie thought, smiling smugly to herself, but the sense of wrongness persisted. Struggling from under the mountain of blankets on her bed, she hurried to don her housecoat and slippers before heading for the tiny kitchen.
The silence in the apartment was oppressive. She and Jennifer had been inseparable since childhood, even working with the same retail store. Maggie, the quieter of the two, worked in the back office as a jack of all trades handling personnel, bookkeeping and the thousand and one detail items, while Jennifer, with her vivacious, outgoing personality, held the position of senior sales representative. Her liveliness pulled Maggie out of her shell, while Maggie's down to earth, no nonsense personality kept Jennifer’s feet planted firm on the ground.
Maggie poured water into the Mr. Coffee machine and returned to her bedroom to dress while the sometimes painfully slow machine did its magic with caffeine. Saturday morning meant the blessed relief of jeans and sweatshirt and her one big splurge - expensive, comfortable running shoes. Going to her roommate's door, she peeked in to assure herself that Jennifer wasn't ill. She opened the door to disaster. Neatness was not one of Jennifer's best points.
Maggie sighed. If she ever had to report her roommate's disappearance to the police, one look at that room and they would be certain there had been a mighty struggle and foul play. Clothes hung haphazardly over the closet door, across the unmade bed, on the floor and over the lone, overloaded chair in the corner. Thank goodness, Jennifer had a more meticulous side in the common living areas of the apartment!
The one rule they set when agreeing to share the rent - each woman's room was hers to do with as she pleased, but the rest of the place had to be suitable for last minute visitors at all times – was not negotiable. They never hassled over whose turn it was to clean. When they got up in the morning, both automatically straightened the living room, kitchen and bath before leaving for work, allowing the major jobs to wait for Saturday morning. With coffee cup in hand, Maggie began the cleaning, but soon stopped. The feeling of wrongness persisted.
Jennifer didn’t stay out all night with every guy she dated and she never failed to let Maggie know if she wouldn’t be home. Come to think of it, she hadn't mentioned that she even had a date. The more she thought about the situation, the more she began to worry.
"If she did meet Mr. Right and stayed out all night without letting me know her plans, I'll brain her when she comes in," thought Maggie. "Oh, well, she's a big girl now and I am not her mother. I'm a roommate who's worried sick! This isn't like Jennifer!"
Muttering to herself, she resumed cleaning. An hour later the apartment sparkled, her roommate still wasn't home, and Maggie decided a run in the park would release the tension she felt building in her muscles. Grabbing her keys, she left the apartment and started toward the running path provided by the new mayor.
At a park bench she did a few minor stretches to limber her muscles and set off down the path at a comfortable trot. The route she chose led her under towering elms. Their long arms reached across the path to meet overhead, providing a cool workout for the daily runners.
Her muscles relaxed as she jogged along. After thirty minutes of easy exercise, Maggie decided to pick up the pace for ten minutes and turn back for home. As she broke into an all out run, a brindle kitten strolled onto the path in front her, making her break stride and stumble, rolling painfully onto the dense grass to the side of the path. Her elbow hit a jutting rock, sending pain shooting up her arm and bringing a howl of anguish. Holding her injured arm, Maggie sat up and stared accusingly at the kitten.
"You picked a fine time to go for a stroll, you stupid little cat. Does your mother know you go around wrecking humans on their days off from work, " she grumbled.
The kitten looked at her for a moment and decided good grooming was more important than this strange person who growled like an animal. It bent to wash its paws, then its fur, saving the tougher sections, like the ears, for last.
Maggie watched the kitten for a moment before the ridiculousness of the situation hit her. Laughter erupted from her in a mulish bray which got the full attention of the tiny animal. When the laughter subsided, Maggie looked around for any signs of the kitten's mother. No other cat was in sight. Her laughter turned to concern. The baby couldn't be more than a few weeks old. Maybe it needed something to eat.
"Why do human beings think the cure-all for every problem is feeding someone or something? Probably because that's the one thing we can do without totally screwing up," she mumbled. "Here, little fellah. How about going with Maggie back to her home and having a bite of breakfast? Come on. There you go. You just snuggle in old Maggie's arms and keep warm and soon we'll be in the nice warm apartment. OUCH!! You little, ungrateful beast!" she yelled as kitten buried its teeth into her right thumb, drawing blood from several punctures.
Hastily she used her left hand to pry the mangled thumb out of the kitten's mouth and popped it into her own to staunch the flow of blood. Contented, the little cat licked the blood from its lips.
Still feeling she should help the baby, she lifted the bottom of her sweatshirt and wrapped it around the small body, making sure that the fierce little mouth was also covered and headed for home. Once in the apartment, the kitten took all of about two minutes to make itself at home, including depositing a puddle in the middle of the kitchen floor since no appropriate sandbox was available.
"I'm having second thoughts about coming to your aid, you little beggar," Maggie moaned as she expended massive amounts of paper towels to soak up the meager puddle. "If I give you food and water, I'm adding to your arsenal of weapons. As grateful as you've been so far, you'll probably barf in my lap! Oh, well, I've always been a glutton for punishment!" she said as she set a bowl of minced breast of chicken in front of her foe.
The kitten dug into the food, a magician working a disappearing chicken act and, as predicted by his benefactor, just as hastily he barfed. The chicken did not look quite as appetizing the second time around.
"Thanks, cat! We good samaritans are always looking for someone to kick us in the rear! I'd say you are just the ticket!" Having used all the paper towels in the puddle incident, Maggie hurried to bring in reinforcements, a roll of toilet tissue. As she cleaned, her own stomach threatened to add its two cents to the mess, but she managed to staunch its flow with several deep breaths.
"So much for helping the helpless! How about a short nap before we try feeding either of us again," she said as she gathered the kitten in her arms, shielding her fingers from the mouth full of razor-sharp baby teeth. A search through the linen closet produced a torn sheet and ragged towel which Maggie used to make a kitten-sized bed. Without even a mew of thanks it stretched out and fell asleep in seconds.
Maggie took the opportunity to run a quick shower and change into fresh levis and sweatshirt. Glancing at her watch as she dressed, she noted that it was almost noon and still no word from Jennifer. The worry came back with jolting force.
Even if her roommate stayed over somewhere she would have called before now. Something was wrong, but what could she do? She knew, from watching her favorite police shows on television, that no one was considered missing until they were gone twenty-four hours, so that was out. Grabbing their address book, she began going down the lists of names, searching for possible places Jennifer might have crashed for the night, avoiding the possibility of calling local hospitals.
Two hours later none of their friends had seen or heard from her roommate, and the hospitals were the only step left in her search. With shaking hands she dialed Med General. A crisp voice directed her to the emergency room extension, where a businesslike, impersonal voice assured her that no one matching Jennifer's description had been brought into the hospital the night before. Calls to the other two hospitals brought alternating sighs of relief and frustration from Maggie when they produced no information regarding her blond friend.
As a last resort, she telephoned Jennifer's home. She had wanted to avoid upsetting Mrs. George, Jennifer's mother, who suffered a mild heart attack the year before, but her options had run out. A deep, masculine voice answered the telephone on the second ring. Confused, because Mrs. George lived alone, Maggie sputtered into the receiver.
"I-I-I'm sorry, b-but is this the George residence?" she asked.
"Yes, it is. This is Raymond, Mrs. George's son. May I help you."
"Oh, hello. I'm Maggie Reynolds, Jennifer's roommate. I'm glad you're there, Mr. George. Jennifer didn't come home last night and I haven't heard from her since she left the office yesterday. She always calls if she's going to be late and I'm worried something may have happened to her, but I didn't want to upset Mrs. George. I've called everyone we know and checked at the hospitals with no results." Maggie was shocked at the way she was rattling on, but was helpless to stop herself.
The voice at the other end of the telephone was gorgeous! In spite of her worry over Jennifer, she felt goose bumps rolling up and down her arms each time Raymond George spoke. She hadn't even known Jennifer had a brother!
"Slow down, Maggie. Let me see if I understand you. You say Jennifer has been missing since yesterday afternoon?"
Cradling the phone between her cheek and shoulder, Maggie hugged herself as she replied, " That's right. And Jennifer is always conscientious about letting me know where she'll be if she's staying away from the apartment. I'm really worried, Mr. George."
"Okay, I'll be right over. I'm not going to say anything to Mom right now. There's plenty of time for that later if, in fact, anything is wrong. What's your address?"
Maggie felt a sense of relief when she replaced the receiver, then irritation.
"What did he mean, 'if anything is wrong?' He sounded as if he thought I'm some dumb little kid who jumps at shadows." She remembered her rapid fire delivery of the problem to his unsuspecting ears. "Oh, lord, I'll bet that's exactly what he thinks. Well, he's probably an old stick in the mud, years older than Jennifer. I wonder why she never told me about him?"
Even as she prepared herself to dislike this 'new' brother, the goose bumps rose on her arms again as she remembered that deep, mellow voice.
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