Page 40 of Before She Disappeared

“What about it?”

“I understand Angelique spent the summer before school started there.”

“They have a day program for teens.” Emmanuel nods. “We both attended.”

“With your friends from school?”

“Our friends from the neighborhood. Most of our classmates live too far away.”

“So, lots of new kids?”

“Yes.”

“Did you make new friends?”

“Yes.”

“And Angelique?”

A shrug. “No one she mentioned. She had Marjolie, of course. They walked over together each day.”

“What about a young man?’

Emmanuel flops back in the booth. “Now you sound like the stupid police.”

“Sorry.”

“My sister did not meet some boy. She would not leave me or my aunt or her dreams of medicine for some boy.”

There is so much disdain in his voice, I wonder if Emmanuel is protesting too much. But what he says next catches me off guard.

“‘I think that God’s got a sick sense of humor and when I die, I expect to find him laughing,’” he suddenly quotes.

It takes me a moment. “Wait, isn’t that Depeche Mode? But what do my high school memories have to do with anything?”

“Eighties music is very popular,” Emmanuel states seriously.

“I still don’t get it.”

Emmanuel looks around, as if expecting the sudden appearance of eavesdroppers, then whispers quietly, “LiLi doesn’t believe in love. She doesn’t believe in God either. ‘No one will save us, ti fre.’ She told me that all the time. When I woke up with nightmares, when I first cried with homesickness: ‘No one will save us, ti fre, but it is okay, for we will save ourselves.’ That’s what my sister believes in. Her strength, her determination, her plan. She was not waiting for our aunt to magically secure our visas, or for some lawyers to sue on our behalf. LiLi believes in LiLi. We will be okay, because she will work hard enough to make it so.” A pause. “You cannot tell my aunt this. It would break her heart.”

I nod slowly, leaning back in silence. The sister he describes, a girl who at the tender age of six supposedly had the fortitude to save her own mother and brother, who was still actively in pursuit of a better future for them all...

I think I would’ve liked that girl very much. And I don’t want to believe she could’ve been derailed by something as fickle as male attention. Then again, fifteen is that age. And maybe the girl who didn’t get to act like a normal six-year-old wanted for one moment to be foolish and giddy. I couldn’t blame her for that.

“Are you continuing to update this site?” I ask Emmanuel.

“Yes. The police... They were too slow to start. And now, all this time without any progress... We do not see or hear from them so much anymore. Even at school... It’s a new year. The other kids, teachers, they move on. It’s not their home that is empty.”

“You’re hoping this might gather national interest. Maybe get your sister’s case on a major news program, re-ignite the investigation.”

“I send letters and e-mails every week. They don’t answer. But my sister...” His voice breaks slightly. “She’s worth it. The whole world should know her. The whole world should be looking. Why... Why aren’t they looking?”

Then he can’t talk. Emmanuel looks down at the table, blinking rapidly. I reach across, lightly fold my fingers over his hand. He doesn’t pull away, but we both know it’s not my comfort he wants.

“I’m not GMA,” I say. “Or 48 Hours or any of those national shows.”

“No,” he states bitterly. Nothing like a teen to give it to you straight.

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