Page 19 of The Lake of Lost Girls

I called his office again, knowing he’d be there. He would have snuck out after Mom went to bed. She was a sound sleeper.

Finally he picked up. He sounded out of breath.

“Dad.”

It was all I said before the tears came and then I couldn’t say anything at all.

“I’m here for you, Jess,” he promised.

I felt silly, turning to my father. I was an adult now. I was living on my own. But sometimes a girl still needed her father, no matter how hard it was to admit.

We were close. This separation was difficult.…for both of us.

The hall was unusually crowded as Daisy and I headed out for dinner. I pulled the door shut behind me. Daisy wrote a note on the wipe board letting our friends know we wereheaded to the Commons, seemingly oblivious to the undercurrent of excited apprehension that vibrated around us.

“Hey guys, did you hear about Tammy?”

We turned to acknowledge the tall girl with bleached-blonde hair and thin, penciled eyebrows who was standing eagerly in her doorway, as if waiting for us to appear.

Daisy gave her a look of annoyance. “What about her?” she asked.

Kara followed us to the stairwell at the end of the hall. “She’s missing.”

That caught my roommate’s attention. Daisy’s mouth popped open in shock. “What do you meanshe’s missing?”

Kara’s eyes widened dramatically. “As in, no one has seen or heard from her in like four days.”

“Ithoughtthings were less oppressive around here,” Daisy joked and I laughed along half-heartedly.

“Maybe she went home,” I suggested uneasily.

“No way. Thanksgiving break is in like two weeks, why would she go home now?” Kara argued. She followed us down the stairs and through the lounge. Once outside, the three of us stopped, the other two clearly wanting to continue playing investigator.

“Midterms ended last week, maybe she’s partying somewhere.” I shrugged attempting to mimic Daisy’s nonchalance.

“Come on, this is Tammy we’re talking about. She’s allergic to partying,” Daisy quipped and Kara laughed. “We can come up with a better theory than that one, Jess.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing—” I started to protest, but Kara and Daisy were already knee deep in speculation.

“Ooh, maybe she ran off with that older guy she’s been screwing.”

“What older guy?”

“The married professor. I think he teaches intro to statistics.”

“Oh my god, Tammy was boinking a teacher? Was it Dr. Daniels? Everyone knows he’sreallyinto his students, if you know what I mean.”

Dr. Daniels.

An image of the handsome man with the kind smile I had almost run into came to mind.

“Maybe, I don’t know his name.”

“Guys, I think you’re making a big deal out of nothing,” I interjected, raising my voice to be heard over their excited discussion. “I overheard her telling her friend Brenda that she had tickets to the Phish show in DC last weekend. That’s probably where she went. She made a big deal out of how she spent three months following them last summer, I bet that’s what she’s doing.”

Daisy and Kara both deflated at the very realistic possibility of our missing RA’s whereabouts. “Yeah, she was always going on and on about that. It was the one semi-interesting thing about her,” Daisy grumbled.

“Well, whatever, she’s definitely gone. So all the girls are planning a massive hall party tonight. You in?” Kara asked us, having already lost interest inwhyTammy was missing. Who cared as long as she wasn’t back before the party.

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