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I shrugged. “I mean, he was the same: quiet and withdrawn.”

“Did his mom pick him up?”

I scratched my head, thinking of him waiting at the classroom door for his mom. She’d been really late. Then again, she was always late. “She picked him up, yeah.”

“What was she like?”

I looked up at him, catching his intense look. I frowned. This was the journalist side of Hal coming through. His tone of voice and expression changed like a flip of a switch. I sort of felt like his next scoop more than anything, and I didn’t want to feel that way.

I slowly stood up, shaking the grass blades from my pants. Dahlia was pressed against my chest, her breathing a little laboured than usual. “She was drunk and slurring. Again, nothing out of the ordinary.”

He took in the information, nodding. Another question was at the tip of his tongue. Before he could ask it, I handed him back his phone and hurried back inside.

Eight

Kali

You’d think that a boy disappearing with his mom would make big news. Strangely, though, it felt just like any other day. Police said Lenny’s mother had a history of ditching town and moving along. That she usually resurfaced after some time. Her little home was also completely cleared, like she’d moved out, and the neighbours had reported she’d left in a moving van and waved goodbye to them and everything. Whether the police backed this up, I wasn’t sure. I almost needed to hear it for myself.

The whole thing sat like cement in my stomach.

One second, I had a boy named Lenny in my class, and the next, the desk where he sat was empty.

And no one cared.

“Any word on him?” I’d asked Patsy that Monday.

“Admin was told they’d be moving along,” Patsy simply said.

I made a face. “Why weren’twetold?”

“Well, it happened so quickly.”

“That doesn’t strike you as weird?” I pressed.

She paused, looking up from the student assessments she’d been filling. Her eyes narrowed behind her glasses. “A lot of weird things happen, Kari. I’ve been a teacher for a few decades now, and if I had to make noise over every little weird instance that occurred, it would be another full-time job.”

In other words, she didn’t have time for it. Did anyone have time for these disappearing children? The ones nobody thought a second about when they suddenly left under strange circumstances.

Goddammit, I saw him on Friday, and now it was Monday, and he was gone?

It took a lot for me to calm down. Between my gritted teeth, I asked quietly, “So that’s it? We’re never going to hear from Lenny again?”

“I’m not sure what you expect us to do. We have a split classroom. He’s in kindergarten. He doesn’t have to be in a school system for another year—”

“His mother is a drunk, and he could be at risk.”

“His aunt has gone to the police, and that’s for them to decide.” She sighed, pursing her lips. “Kari, this is what comes with the job. I know it’s difficult, and I agree that his mother had issues, but it’s not enough to start making bold accusations.”

“All I’m asking we do is a follow up,” I urged. “Proof that he’s okay.”

“While we are mandatory reporters, we need to provide proof ourselves and follow up on our claims.”

“He was hungry, he always wore the same clothes, and his mother was a drunk—”

“I never saw bruises on that child’s body,” she cut in, sharply, her patience depleted now as she put her pen down and folded her hands together, giving me her full attention. “He always had a lunch box. His shoes fit him, his clothes didn’t have holes in them, and he was verbal when he was asked to speak. There were no behavioural issues documented by either of us over the last six weeks he was in class, and he appeared to play with the boys in the yard at recess. While his mother picked him up late on occasion, she still showed up at the first parent teacher meeting, and she appeared fit enough to hold a steady conversation with every interaction I personally had with her.”

She stole my breath, making me realise she’d been all too aware of him, after all. My eyes were wide as she kept her gaze steady with mine.

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