Read Online Five Days in Summer by Katia Lief - Free Book Online Page A

of his big brother. Sarah had been struck by the moment, and as her camerahad by chance been on the counter next to where she stood, she had quickly turned it on and aimed it at her daughter. Emily’s eyes had pivoted toward the camera just as Sarah snapped the shot. Her hazel, almond eyes. The eyes Sarah had gazed into when her newborn daughter was first brought to her, the eyes that over years had questioned and adored and accused. They were the eyes of pure love, purer even than her love for Jonah. Every mother knew, when she looked into the eyes of her first child, that until that moment she had not experienced the kind of true love that claimed you forever.
    Sarah ran a fingertip over the slick photograph. Where was her baby now? What was she going through? Was she afraid? Was she in pain?
    If only Emily hadn’t gone shopping. They hadn’t really needed anything.
    Sarah couldn’t wait through the morning doing nothing; she had to do something to help find Emily. There was a copy shop in the new set of stores next to Ricky’s Market. She could call her neighbor Barbara as early as eight o’clock to ask if she could watch the boys. Maxi wouldn’t be too much of a bother while Sarah made her copies.
    She took a piece of plain white paper out of the fax machine and taped Emily’s photo in the very center. In bold black marker across the top, she wrote MISSING. In the space below the photo she elaborated: Emily Parker, missing since the afternoon of Monday 9/3/01. Last seen at Stop & Shop by the Mashpee Rotary. 39 yrs., 5’ 6”, 135 lbs., sandy blond hair, hazel eyes, freckled complexion. Sarah wished she knew what Emily had been wearing, but she could at least describe her bracelet, which she only took off to shower and sleep. Wearing silver charm bracelet with swimmer, cello, sword, coin, heart, three babies.
    She put the pen down and looked at her sign. When Jonah had died, after a short bout with cancer at the age of seventy-seven, his sudden absence had seemed impossible, but not wholly unexpected. This void, Emily’s, was unreal. It couldn’t be happening to her daughter, or to her, or to her grandchildren. Sarah had worked so hard all night to stave off tears for fear of waking the children and frightening herself even more than she already was. But now she couldn’t stop them and they came in a flood. Her stomach ached she cried so hard, nearly choking on her breath as she struggled to hold it. One hollow wail escaped her and seemed to fill the entire house.
    Moments later, she heard movement downstairs. Voices. The boys talking. The whining cry of Maxi as she roused from sleep.
    Sarah wiped her face on the hem of her shirt, the same one she’d worn all day yesterday. She didn’t want the children to see she hadn’t gone to bed and so rushed down the stairs to her bedroom. She pulled back her covers, took off her clothes and threw on her summer robe. Cold water on her face helped dissolve anguish into mere exhaustion. As she toweled dry her face, the bathroom door burst open.
    Sammie threw himself into her arms. “I’m hungry!”
    “Morning, sweetie.” She kissed the top of his sleep-rumpled hair. “Have you used the bathroom?”
    He pulled down his pajama bottoms and peed in Sarah’s toilet.
    David then appeared in her doorway, holding one of those glittering Pokemon cards Sam so dearly prized.
    “That’s mine .” Sam lunged at David’s hand.
    “I know it’s yours, dufus. I found it on the floor. You should take care of your stuff.”
    “Give it to me!”
    “Try asking nicely .”
    Sam wrestled David to the floor. Sarah was on her way over to pry apart their thrashing bodies when Maxi’s crying escalated.
    Grandmothers were not built to handle this much chaos.
    “Stop that fighting.”
    She had raised one girl, an only child. Boys, and brothers, were out of her league.
    “I said—”
    Sam was strong but David was bigger and more agile; he easily pinned his little brother down. Sammie