“Sure, honey,” Eric said. He put his arms around her and kissed her warmly. “Tell Mommy we’ll see her in a few minutes, girls.”
“See you, Mommy!” Tatiana cried.
Olivia just waved.
Rachel entered her office. Once the door was closed, it seemed as if the noisy world outside did not exist. She shut her eyes and worked her neck and shoulders in a stretching exercise, trying to relieve some of the ache she felt after two hours of conducting.
When she opened her eyes, someone was standing in front of her desk.
“Who . . . ?”
A strange, cold sensation against her face arrested any attempt at speaking. Rachel had a brief thought about icy rain before everything went black.
When she awoke again, she was still sitting at her desk, her head resting in her arms. She looked up slowly, feeling shaky inside. No one was in the room now, but she had a vague sensation that someone had been there. It was like the last vestiges of a dream.
She rubbed her eyes, and as she drew her hands away, she noticed they were dirty.
She must have passed out. Sheer exhaustion, that’s all. Maybe she only dreamed someone was in the office. But she was certain Eric would be worried about her if she didn’t hurry and get her things together.
She filed away that night’s music and gathered up some songsheets she hoped to practice that weekend. Then she opened her office door and left, locking it behind her.
Rachel was immediately aware that something was wrong. It was dark in the hallway, and so quiet. Where had all the students gone? Where were their families?
She quickened her pace to a half-run, her high heels rapping on the tiled floor. There wasn’t another person in sight, not another sound but those she made herself. She reached the lobby, expecting to see her family waiting. But Eric and her daughters weren’t there.
A soft click made her cry out in fear. She swung around, expecting to see someone behind her. Instead, her eyes were drawn to the big clock on the wall. In the daytime, with so much noise in the school, she never would have heard the click of the moving minute hand. But what startled her more was the time: 1:10 A.M.
“But the concert was over at eleven!”
What had happened to her in those missing hours? Where was her family?
Clutching the folder of music as if it were a shield, she hurried down the hall to the administration office. As she had expected, it was locked tight. She opened her purse, found a handful of change, and went to call home on the pay phone. Eric answered on the first ring.
“Rachel?” he said. “Thank God! Where are you?”
“At the school,” Rachel said. “Eric, I don’t know what happened!”
“You just wait there,” Eric said. “I’m coming to get you.”
The Freleng house was on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, just two miles away from the high school. Eric was there within minutes, running to take a frightened and confused Rachel into his arms.
“We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” he said, leading her to their car. “Honey, where were you?”
“I . . . I think I passed out,” Rachel said. “But when I woke up, I was in my office.”
Eric backed away, resting his hand against her face. Under the lamplight, his dark fingers were a sharp contrast to the café-au-lait color of his wife’s skin. Her gray-green eyes were filled with tears, a show of both relief and fear.
“When I came to,” Rachel said, “no one was here! Eric, why did you leave without me?”
Eric shook his head.
“But we checked your office. We looked everywhere—and then we had a few people help with the search. The janitor even let us into the boiler room . . .”
He hugged her again. “God, I was so scared. I thought something terrible had happened to you.”
“What about the girls?” Rachel asked.
“They couldn’t get to bed when we got home,” Eric said. “Tati was afraid of having nightmares. She hears so many stories about missing people. The poor kid probably thought you were going to end up on a milk carton. Olivia didn’t say a word, but you could tell by her eyes that she was frightened too. They’ll be glad to see you.”
He opened the car door and helped her inside. Then he went around himself.
“Do you feel okay?” he asked. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I think I’m fine,” Rachel said. “I just feel a little dizzy. But, Eric, more than two hours of my day are missing!”
Eric started the car, and they drove home through the well-lit streets. “I’ll call the police when we get home. They didn’t consider you missing long enough to conduct a search, but they should know something happened to you.”