A local woman missing- Mary Kubica

MEREDITH
11 YEARS BEFORE
April
Over the weekend, a client goes into labor. It’s Saturday. Ordinarily
Josh would be home. But on this particular Saturday, he’s
entertaining clients at a Cubs game. They have a suite on the first
baseline. The weather is terrible: windy and cold. But they’ll be
indoors. They also have access to as much food and beer as they
can eat and drink. Josh asked if I minded if he went. He was excited,
like a kid on Christmas Eve. How could I say no?
I was hoping my client wouldn’t go into labor today, not with Josh
gone and the kids home with me. I need to make arrangements for
them. I go to Cassandra’s first. I bring the kids with me, out into the
inclement weather. It’s not raining. But the skies are portentous. The
wind spins the hair around our heads. It’s like walking into a wall. It’s
hard to walk at all. I grab the kids by the hand and pull them across
the street. The wind tries to push us back.
I could call Cassandra. But refusing in person is harder to do than
over the phone.
Marty answers the door. The surprise is evident. He hadn’t
expected to see me. “Meredith,” he says, glancing down at the cold
kids, then back up at me. “What’s up?”
Josh and Cassandra know that Marty and I both went to the same
college in Indiana. What they don’t know is that we were friends, that
we lived in the same coed dorm our freshman year.
They also don’t know that we dated, that we were hot and heavy
for a while, until we weren’t. Marty and I lost contact after college.
He’s originally from Indiana. He stayed there and attended grad
school after I left. We didn’t talk again after that. I didn’t think we ever
would. In fact, I forgot all about Marty, except for those random
thoughts that come to you at random times, like how I lost my
virginity to him. I thought about him mostly in terms of Delilah,