Page 119 of Absorbed

“We’re just trying to find Mark Rosenthal,” Chad said, leaning over the emergency brake to be heard over the engine and the loud AC. “We need to talk to him.”

“I live next door,” the woman said, gesturing over her shoulder to the house at the end of the cul-de-sac. “The Rosenthals are on vacation in Hawaii.”

“Oh,” Stacey replied, confused. She looked at Chad, who seemed equally surprised. “Don’t you think Mark would have mentioned a trip like that coming up at some point this summer?”

Chad threw his hands up.

“But Mark isn’t with them,” the woman said slowly.

“He’s not?” Chad said looking up at her through the open window.

“No.” The woman clasped her hands in front of her. “Can I ask, how do you know Mark?”

“We worked together at the pool,” Stacey said.

“He’s our friend,” Chad interjected.

The woman twisted her lips and brought her right hand to her mouth, as if she was contemplating something. “If you’re here about drugs, you should leave right now.”

“What?” Stacey said. “No! Mark rescued another friend of ours, Jessie, while I was there. Mark saved his life. When we were at the hospital visiting, Jessie said he really needed to talk to Mark, and made me promise I would tell Mark to go see him. That’s why we’re here.”

“I see.” The woman nodded and dropped her hands. “Mark’s had a rough go of things lately, and we have to be careful about who can see him. If you give me a minute, I can find out if hewould like to talk to you. At the very least I can give him your message. What are your names?”

“I’m Stacey and this is Chad.” Stacey gestured with her hands. “We don’t want to be a problem. We’ve just been worried about him.”

“I’ll be right back. He’s my grandson, by the way.”

She crossed the large lawn between the two houses. Stacey rolled the window back up and looked at Chad. “What the hell?”

Chad pushed his palms into his eye sockets, then smoothed his hands over his hair. “Who knows. At least we found him.”

A few minutes later, Mark’s grandmother waved from her porch for them to come over.

Stacey’s flip-flops sank into the cool, damp lawn and thick blades of grass poked at her feet. There was a richness in the air that smelled green, so different from the chicken manure that permeated Stacey’s neighborhood.

Mark’s grandmother’s house was the mirror image of Mark’s, so the front entrances paralleled one another on an angle, with a wide view of the golf course in between the two properties. A golf cart and a large, white Cadillac were parked beside one another in the driveway.

“Do you think they drive the golf cart right over the lawn and down there to that path?” Stacey asked.

Chad nodded, his sandals crunching into the grass with each step. “Someday I want a house in a place like this,” he muttered.

“For sure,” Stacey agreed.“But not in Mesa Valley.”

Mark’s grandmother stood beside the wide, shiny wooden front door, and ushered them inside.

The entryway had wood-paneled walls and smelled like Pledge. Every surface that wasn’t shiny wood was either sparkling glass or fine upholstery, and there was an entire wall of books in the family room. An older man looked up at them from his seat in the corner where he was reading.

The family room’s large picture window lit the room well and gave a clear view of the entire neighborhood. Stacey’s car stuck out like a sore thumb beside Mark’s truck, and she could see how its presence would have drawn their attention immediately.

“Hi.” Stacey waved at the man she assumed was Mark’s grandfather. “Sorry to interrupt your afternoon.”

The man nodded in reply, but did not wave back. Or smile.

“Follow me,” Mark’s grandma said. “Mark’s in the dining room.”

The scent of a delicious meal cooking wafted toward them from the kitchen, offering a warm, comfortable aura to the house.

Mark was seated at the table, clean shaven, with a fresh haircut, a buttoned shirt, and slacks. Without his goatee and wild locks, sprawled on the guard shack’s thrift store couch in a stained tee and red trunks, this Mark barely resembled the person Stacey had worked with at The Plunge all summer.

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