Page 4 of July (New Orleans #7)

J ill wasn’t sure what to bring with her.

If she took her mother at her word, she’d be gone for about a week, but her apartment wasn’t far from the house, so it wasn’t like she was packing for a vacation thousands of miles away.

She only had a carry-on roller bag and a backpack, choosing not to spend money on real luggage yet in her life because she had no place to take it to anyway.

It wasn’t like she could afford a trip to Fiji or Bali.

Then again, if she went to Fiji or Bali, it would probably be with a beautiful woman she would be calling her girlfriend or wife, so she would only need to pack bikinis because they’d either be on or in the water or naked in bed.

She settled on packing a few of her uniform shirts for NOLA Guides and a couple pairs of khakis that went with them.

Her mom had a washer and dryer, so she’d be able to do laundry there.

She added a pair of jeans and some things to sleep in, along with all of her toiletries, her laptop, and a few other odds and ends.

Then, she got in the car and arrived at her mom’s house by six-fifteen.

It was strange, sitting in the driveway.

She had only spent a year or so in this house before she’d left for college.

Nearly right after that, her old bedroom had been turned into a guest room, so she couldn’t exactly call this place home or even familiar.

Jill grabbed her stuff, and even though she had a key for emergencies, she still knocked on the door.

When no one answered, she rang the bell and waited, but after a few more rings didn’t yield any result, she let herself in.

“Mom?” she yelled. “Juni?”

There was no response, so Jill dropped her stuff by the door and closed it, locking it to be safe, before she walked farther inside.

The house opened on a hallway, which made seeing things beyond it difficult.

She took a few steps forward and turned right into the living room, but she only saw the old furniture.

Her stepdad’s stuffed deer head, which had always grossed her out, was still mounted above the sofa.

He’d been so proud of his hunting skills and liked to brag often, but Jill wasn’t a fan of hunting for sport.

His old recliner was next to the sofa and still probably hadn’t been used since his death, which she understood.

Jill walked a little farther in and yelled for her mother and sister once more.

When she checked the kitchen next, it was empty as well, and when she took a look out the back window, she confirmed that they weren’t in the postage-stamp-sized yard, either.

“Mom!” she yelled again, getting frustrated.

She walked down the hall past the bathroom and looked into Juni’s room.

The kid wasn’t there. The guest room was on the other side of the hall, but she looked in there, too, despite knowing that neither of them would have any reason to be in there.

Lastly, she checked her mom’s room and bathroom.

No one was home. Jill grunted in frustration now.

“What the hell?”

She pulled out her phone and prepared to dial her mom’s number.

Her mom hadn’t ever been a flaky person, but after she had lost her husband, a lot of things had changed in the woman.

Jill wouldn’t put it past her to have changed her mind about Juni needing to be in school and that she’d just taken her with her and had forgotten to call Jill to tell her not to bother to come over.

Before she could tap her mom’s contact to check, though, the house phone rang.

Jill wasn’t even sure who still had a landline these days outside of her mother, but she walked over to the cordless phone that connected to a wall in the kitchen and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Good. Hello,” a man spoke. “This is your daughter’s school. We’ve been trying to reach you.”

“Oh, you mean my mom. This is her daughter.”

“Sorry. Is your mother there?”

The way he had asked that question made it seem like he thought Jill was a little kid, which made her laugh to herself a little. No one probably expected a ten-year-old to have a twenty-six-year-old sister.

“No, she’s not. What’s going on?” she asked. “I’m Juni’s older sister. She’s supposed to be here. I’m babysitting her tonight.”

“Your sister is still here,” he replied.

“She’s still at school?”

“Yes. Your mother didn’t pick her up. We’ve been trying to reach her for several hours now.

We’ve called her cell phone and left messages, and we’ve called this phone every few minutes.

Our next step was to call social services or the police.

We’ve had a teacher here watching Juni, and she needs to get home. I’m the assistant principal.”

“Shit,” Jill said. “Um… Let me call my mom, but I’ll be there to pick her up.”

“What’s your name?”

“Jill Solomon,” she said.

“Yes, you’re on the pickup list.”

“The list?” she asked.

“The people approved to pick up the kids. Your name is on it, so if you can come and get her, we would really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, I’m on my way,” she replied. Then, she remembered something. “Actually, I don’t know where the school is.”

The assistant principal told her the name of the school and the general location, and when the call ended, Jill dialed her mother’s number.

There was no answer, and Jill was already back in the car and needed to use her phone for GPS, so she decided not to leave a message for now and drove to the school.

When she got there, she saw her little sister sitting on the cement staircase, with her bright pink backpack on her shoulders and a lunch box that matched in her hand.

Juni stood up when Jill pulled the car right up to her, and Jill got out because she wasn’t sure if the school would need anything else from her.

“Hi. I’m Juni’s sister, Jill,” she said to the man standing next to Juni.

“Hi, Jill,” Juni greeted as she stood.

“Hey,” Jill replied and looked back at the man. “Do you need me to sign anything?”

“No. Thank you for getting here on such short notice. Your mother is usually right on time. This hasn’t ever happened before.”

“I’ll keep trying to reach her. She’s driving to my grandparents right now. They’ve been sick. She’s probably in a cell phone black hole or something.”

“Well, I hope everything’s okay,” he replied.

“Me too,” she said softly. Then, she looked down at her worried sister and remembered that she was only ten years old. “I’m sure Mom’s fine. You know that drive to Grandma’s goes through the middle of nowhere. She’ll just have to call us when she gets there.”

“Okay,” Juni said, seemingly satisfied.

Jill thanked the assistant principal and opened the door for Juni, who climbed inside.

“Are you allowed to sit in the front seat?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Juni asked.

“Don’t kids have to sit in the back or in a car seat or something?”

“I’m ten,” Juni replied, looking at Jill like she was an idiot.

“Yeah, okay,” Jill said.

She tossed Juni’s backpack and lunch box in the back seat and got back into the driver’s seat.

“Is Mom really okay?” Juni asked when Jill turned the car on.

“What? Yeah, of course she is,” she replied. “She told me I was supposed to pick you up so she could leave earlier, and I was working and lost track of time. This was my fault. Sorry, Juni.”

Jill lied to protect her mother. She didn’t think it would help anyone for Juni to be worried about her right now, so she’d take the heat for this one.

She drove them home, and when they got there, it only just dawned on her that there was no pizza present.

Her mom hadn’t picked Juni up, which likely meant she also hadn’t ordered their dinner.

“Hey, what do you like on your pizza?”

“Cheese,” Juni told her as she walked directly to her bedroom.

“Just cheese?”

“Yes,” the girl said and disappeared into the room.

Jill pulled out her phone and dialed her mom’s number again, only to be met with another prompt to leave a voicemail. Frustrated, she did leave a message this time.

“Mom, what the hell? Juni was still at school, waiting for you to get her. You didn’t tell me I had to pick her up.

And you were supposed to have dinner here.

Where are you? The school told me they called and left messages.

I’ve called, too. You need to call me back so that I know you’re okay.

I get that there might not be coverage for part of your drive, but there’s no way you can’t find cell service long enough to call or text me that you’re fine.

Stop at a rest stop or gas station or something and call me. ”

Jill hung up and pulled up the app for the pizza place she usually ordered from. She got Juni a small cheese pizza and herself a medium pepperoni with green peppers. Then, she went to check on her sister, who was in her room, sitting on her bed with a workbook in her lap.

“Homework?” she asked from the doorway.

“Yeah,” Juni replied.

“I ordered dinner,” Jill shared.

“Okay,” her sister said back without looking up from her workbook.

“Um… What do you usually do at night? Mom didn’t give me any instructions or anything.”

“Homework,” Juni said. “Dinner. Bath. Then, I can play games on my tablet.”

“Tablet. Got it,” Jill replied. “Well, dinner will be here soon, so I guess just keep doing what you’re doing until it gets here.”

“Okay,” Juni said.