A local woman missing- Mary Kubica

“You’re a good person,” Josh says before he leaves for work. I
hate how we’re always rushing off in opposite directions.
I also feel guilty for lying to Josh. But what he doesn’t know won’t
hurt him. I’m lying to protect him. To protect Shelby. To protect my
career.
Through the window, Delilah sees Cassandra, Piper and Arlo leave
for school. She gets upset because of it. She wants to leave, too.
She wants to walk to school with Piper. But we can’t leave yet,
because I can’t find one of Leo’s shoes.
“Help me look,” I tell Delilah, and she does. She finds it hidden
behind the kitchen curtains. Leo won’t sit still long enough for me to
put it on. By the time we make it outside, Cassandra and family are
gone. They’re too far ahead to catch even if we ran.
“Don’t worry. You’ll see her at school,” I tell a pouting Delilah.
Leo and I walk Delilah the few blocks to school. We take her to the
corner where parents congregate, watching as the crossing guard
gets the children across the street and to the redbrick building on the
other side.
Delilah makes us walk quickly to try and catch Piper before she
crosses the street. She wants to walk into school with her. But by the
time we arrive, Piper has already crossed the street. Even worse,
she’s walking hand in hand with another little girl from school, Lily
Morris. Lily Morris is in Piper and Delilah’s kindergarten class.
Delilah is upset because she has to wait for the crossing guard to
allow her to cross. But the crossing guard is letting traffic pass now;
she has to wait. I feel badly for her, having to watch these other girls
walk into the building without her, feeling left out. Friendships are
hard. I lean down and whisper in her ear, “You’ll catch up with them
in class. It will be fine, honey. You’ll see.”
Cassandra and Arlo stand at the corner. I’d go over and say hello,
but Cassandra is caught up in a conversation with Lily Morris’s
mother, Amber. I don’t like Amber any more than Delilah likes Lily.
Lily, according to Delilah, is not nice. She’s mean. She won’t ever