Fishing Trip on Highway Six `     She had begun the day with both anticipation and anxiety. Anticipation for Micah's return late tonight from his weekend fishing trip. Anxiety that he would still be angry at her for her crying fit over his leaving her alone nearly every week.       She had known when she married a salesman that he would be away a lot, but she hadn't expected him to leave her on weekends as well. This time she had begged him to take her with him, but he told her he needed time to himself so he could relax.  She had to agree that lately he had seemed even more wound up than he usually was.      Maybe it was her fault. Maybe he was right when he told her to quit whining so much. But they had been married such a short time and although he was away frequently during the year she had known him, he had promised to change his routine after they got married.           Annalise poured her morning coffee. She carried it into the living room to watch her morning soap opera and was just in time to catch the last part of a news flash telling of another child's body being found in the lake off Highway Six. The second one this summer. And it was near the same campsite where a young girl had been attacked a month before.      "Boulder Creek  that's terrible," she thought. "That's where Micah went camping. I wonder if he heard about it."           At noon she turned on the news channel.  There was more about the child who had disappeared. She had vanished from her parent's cottage where she had been left for her afternoon nap and wasn't missed for several hours. When they found her in the lake, the little girl was wearing a pink striped dress, but her little white socks and pink underpants were missing.       Annalise shuddered, the girl was the same age as her niece. "It hits home worse, somehow, when it happens at a place you're familiar with," she agonized.           Her thoughts were interrupted by the roar of the camper screeching into the driveway.  Micah slammed the truck door and strode into the house.       "You're back early," she began, "did you have a good trip?"           "If you call finding a dead kid in your favorite fishing hole and having to spend the rest of the morning talking to the police good." His hands shook as he poured himself a drink.           "How terrible for you, what an awful thing to get involved in. I heard it on the news. Were you the only one there?"           "I don't want to talk about it.  Okay?" Annalise tried to put her arms around him, but he backed away.       "I'm going to unload the camper", he told her and went out to the carport.           Maybe he would feel better if he had something to eat. "I've made you a sandwich," she called through the screen door." When he didn't answer, she looked outside and saw a police car in the yard and Micah talking to two police officers.        He came in the house for his jacket. "I have to go down to the station.  They want me to go over the whole damn thing again."  His face was ashen.           After Micah left in the police car, Annalise tried to keep herself occupied while she waited for him to come home. She gathered up some washing and went out to the camper to get the bedding from Micah's sleeping bag. There was something stuffed into the bottom of a pillowcase. She could see its color through the linen.       And as she shook the pillowcase out onto the lawn, somehow she knew she was going to find a pair of pink underpants and a pair of little white socks.                                                ~Daphne Wilson

Click "Back Button" to return to Index

This page was last updated on: 28/1/02