Initially, he had ascribed her inattention to some event or occasion with her girlfriends, but last Thursday, Virginia Bundy had approached him in the grocery store inquiring about Helen’s well-being; apparently, she had not shown up to their regular get-togethers in days .
He temporarily achieved peace when he had concluded that she had been spending all her time mothering their 18-year old son. Always an overzealous parent, Helen probably tried to maximize their time together before he left for college. Paul had chuckled, pitying the poor boy.
“Kid must have been miserable all week with so much attention. Oh well, mothers and their sons…”
However, his relief had retransformed into confusion when he had arrived home Friday night to find no trace of his wife or son except a hastily scrawled note pinned to the refrigerator. The note explained that the pair was driving to the family cabin on Lake Michigan in order to go to an “alumni event”, and would return Sunday night. What alumni event? Why hadn’t he heard of this before?
Hungry for an explanation, he’d tried Helen and Jason’s cellphones for hours to no avail. Finally, as he sipped his third glass of whiskey that night, he called the cabin’s landline. After reaching the answering machine twice, he began to confirm that his family was lying to him. On the third time, however, somebody picked up.
“H-hello?”
Paul was immediately relieved to hear the familiar voice of his wife on the line.
“It’s me babe. Where are you? What’s going on? How come you guys haven’t been picking up?” his voice quivered with the burden of a thousand worries.
No response. All he heard was a rhythmic knocking and a strangely wet sound punctuated by distant, panicked, female whispers and perhaps a male chuckle, “Sweetie noooo…”
“Helen? Baby?”
“U-uh hey hon… l-listen let me c-call you back in a f-few hours. SORRY!”
Paul tore the phone away as his wife’s shriek pierced his ears. When he returned the device to his ear, only a dial tone was present.
He tried calling back a few more times, but he directly went to voicemail — the phone had been disconnected altogether. For the next few hours, he returned to the comforts of Glenfiddich, his attention focused on the silent cellphone on the desk. He fell asleep waiting.
He woke up to his jazzy ringtone on Saturday at 10:30 — it was Helen’s cellphone.
“Hello?”
“Hey babe, sorry again about yesterday — we were stupid and let our cellphone charges go out, and that damn cabin phone just won’t work. And sorry about leaving on such short notice, but Jason just got the call and I didn’t want him to miss any important information.”
Despite the significant holes in the story, Paul’s relief at hearing his wife’s voice and coming to some explanation blinded the poor fool, “It’s ok! Let me come up there — I want to see you two.”
“NO!” Helen almost shouted. “We… we’re already here at the event… it’d be a waste of time. You just enjoy your weekend.”
“But I should be there for him! I’m his father.”
Helen curtly responded, “Look, if we’re being honest, I’m almost certain he doesn’t want you here. You know how college kids are…”