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“Look Jane, I’m sorry if I upset her, but she said some pretty hurtful stuff; I was upset too.” Macauley said into the phone.
“So where is she now?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I called you. I went back to the car and waited for her, but she just stayed by the pool for ages. Then she got up and walked off in the opposite direction. When I lost sight of her, I went back but I couldn’t see her anywhere.” Macauley’s voice tone change, “Look Jane I’m scared; she might have done something stupid.”
Jane’s brow creased as she listened to Macauley’s account of the outing to the park.
“Shit I wish I hadn’t lost my cool. I should have known better; there’s no excuse for the way I behaved.”
“Look there’s no sense blaming yourself Macauley. Sure it might have been better if you hadn’t yelled at her, but she’s not a child. She has to accept people for what they are and more importantly she has to learn she can’t just dump her crap on other people all the time.” The line was silent while Jane thought for a minute, “Look, don’t worry too much Macauley, she will come back. She’ll probably take a long walk then come back home and act as if nothing happened.’ She sounded more confident than she felt. Hey, will you ring me as soon as she get in? She’s been making reasonable progress lately, but she’s still a sick young woman.”
Consumed by regret, Macauley slowly replaced the phone in the cradle. She desperately wished she hadn’t said what she did; if only she could take the words back. She wanted to talk to James, but didn’t want to tie up the line in case Annah tried to call. She flopped in a chair and willed the phone to ring.
Two hours crawled by and still nothing. Not a call; not a sound from the next unit. “I’ve got to do something. I can’t just sit and wait, I’ve got to find her.” Macauley cried out. She grabbed her handbag and car keys; pulled on her jacket and hurried into the cold night air.
The drive back to the park was a torment for Macauley. Visions of little Annah standing in her long white nightgown, her cat in her arms, watching her father carry his dead wife from the icy lake, kept flashing through her mind. “I’ve got to find her, before she does something I’ll never forgive myself for.”
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