Sisterhood Everlasting - Ann Brashares [21]
“She hasn’t mentioned much of anything in a long time.”
Bridget nodded. This was a conversation they’d had many versions of before. “I wish I knew why all the mystery.” In the light of the present, unsettling mystery, it seemed especially strange—unacceptable, really—not to know these things. How could they have gone around knowing so little? How could they have let that stand?
“This doesn’t happen by accident. There’s got to be some reason for her being out of touch,” Lena said.
Carmen crossed and uncrossed her legs. “She sent out emails. We’ve all gotten a few. What do you expect when she lives halfway around the world? Anyway, she obviously wants to be together now.”
Bridget shook her head, annoyed at herself for letting this go, for not spending enough time badgering Tibby. For not just getting on a plane and going to Australia if that was what it took. “When she turns up here, we’re going to sit the poor girl down and get some answers before we let her out of our sight.”
Carmen’s arms were crossed and her bones stuck out. “She’s just been busy, like all of us. Brian has been utterly, totally in love with Tibby since she was fifteen, and she’s the same way about him. There’s no way they broke up. Who besides us would she talk to about it? There’s no way she could go through something that big without us knowing.”
“Something is wrong,” Bridget said. They’d waited implicitly until midnight to say so. They’d waited for Bee to be the one to say it.
Lena’s hands were on her neck. “What should we do? Call the police? The consulate?” She’d been thinking of it since the sky turned dark. Her mind flashed back to the hundreds of signs they’d made when they were looking for their lost pants ten years before, and she felt like she was choking.
This island was a fucking sinkhole. It had lost most of itself under the ocean, for God’s sake. It was a terrible place for losing things.
Bridget got up and started to pace. “I feel like going out and looking for her,” she said.
“I think call the consulate first,” Carmen said to Lena.
Lena found the number in one of her grandparents’ ancient directories but couldn’t get a live voice on the phone.
Carmen’s face was serious. “The police?”
Lena found the number of the local precinct number and called it. Her heart was mashing around and her head was grasping for the way to say anything in Greek. The phone rang many times before a man picked it up.
“English?” was the first thing she asked him, disappointingly.
“A little. No. You want to call back?” he asked her in Greek.
“No. I need to talk to someone now,” she said, also in Greek. She didn’t realize she wasn’t speaking English until she’d spoken. She explained, in Greek apparently, about Tibby. She talked and listened for several minutes, noticing Bee’s and Carmen’s surprised eyes on her face. They hovered as she hung up the phone.
“How did you do that?” Carmen asked her breathlessly.
“I’ve been practicing.”
“What did they say?” Bridget asked.
“He said to call back if she’s missing for twenty-four hours. She’s not technically missing until then. But he took down all the information. He has her name and age and description and our number and address and everything.” She pressed her lips together. She felt suddenly tired, though nowhere near sleep. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“We’ll wait,” Bee said.
Nobody tried to suggest eating or sleeping. Talking was the only comfort they had.
By the time dawn made its way through the slats of the shutters, they couldn’t think of any more stories to tell themselves about what could have happened. It had been two nights now without sleep, and the whole world had taken on an alien aspect. Carmen had long since searched the back bedroom for any note or clue as to where Tibby might have gone, though it felt wrong to open Tibby’s duffel bag.
“There is some logical explanation,” Carmen told them. “There always is.”
The knock at the door came around two hours past dawn.
Though they had sat seemingly