15th July 1998
I can’t sleep thinking about what we will do tomorrow.
I’m scared he
will know; I’m scared he will be watching me…
Chapter 1
August 1998
Three
weeks after…
trying as best
they could to maintain the straight line they had been instructed to hold. They
didn’t speak, they could barely look one another in the eye. They all knew just
one look would confirm their worst fears, that the searching was in vain. They
weaved around bushes and climbed
unsteadily over fallen
trees. The mud, thick and heavy, made
progress even slower, and on a few
occasions the sludge underfoot dragged wellington boots clean off tired feet.
The summer had burnt bright and long, one of the hottest on record. But
the woods were dark, cold. The air didn’t move there, but hung heavily, its damp breath ancient, a
thousand whispered secrets over a thousand years,
clinging to everything within. And somewhere
within, she might be alive. Hoping to be found. It
had been three weeks since she had vanished, three long weeks. It didn’t ring
the bell of hope. Regardless, they didn’t stop moving, they didn’t stop looking.
In
the middle the group walked Neve. She moved silently,
helped those who were stuck and in return was helped when she
became stuck herself. They had walked for long enough that the snapping of twigs and rustle of
animals moving in the under- growth no longer startled them. Upon reaching a
clearing, they were told by the search leader,
a policeman called Thompson who had led the investigation, to stop and
rest. Finding a felled tree, Neve sat and took a moment to look up through the
thick canopy of summer
leaves to see the sky beyond. It was beginning to morph in colour as day
changed into night, a beautiful pink hue wrapped around a cloud. It looked
contented, peaceful, oblivious. She assumed it would be another hour until it
was too dark to continue, and that would mean another
night passed with no sign of her, the twenty-second long night in the
scared village. Neve caught her father watching from the small group stood in a
circle, smoking hand-rolled cigarettes, discussing the next step. He smiled,
trying to be reassuring, but she could see the worry in his eyes. He looked
tired, older somehow. But then
again, everyone in the village now looked tired and old, and afraid.
After
a few minutes of rest and foot rubbing, boots were back on and they were moving
again, quietly scanning the patch of ground in front of each step. Punctuating
the sound of snapped twigs, heavy breathing of those less fit, wind through the
treetops and bird call was one word spoken every now and then. A single name,
her name.
Chloe.
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