Member-only story
Mr. Blackie
The Case of the Missing Calgery Boy
A prickling shiver ran down Robinson’s spine.
Mrs. Calgery’s eyes had widened, and then she pushed past Robinson to step out onto the porch and look around.
“Adam? Adam baby, are you there?”
Robinson’s heart broke, and she quickly stepped on the cigarette the woman had dropped, before it rolled off the porch and into the brittle, brown bushes that decorated it.
“I’m sorry ma’am, it might have been one of the neighbor’s kids.”
Mrs. Calgery whipped around and threw her arms out. “What neighbor’s kids?!”
The expression on the woman’s face was enough to make Robinson’s stomach sink as she tried to come up with something to say. Anything that was better than what she had just spoke. Robinson couldn’t see the neighbor’s houses they were so far down the road, even without the rows of growing corn in the way.
No child had come running around the corner, and the sound of the bouncing ball hadn’t returned.
She should have been paying more attention, then Adam’s face would have stood out to her. But she had been absorbed in her own thoughts and the long drive from Milwaukee to Arcadia had been more tiring than she had imagined.
