Read Online The Disappeared by Vernon William Baumann - Free Book Online Page A

realised the dumbest thing
he could do right now was attract unwanted attention to himself. Especially for
a couple of sticky, crumpled notes.
    He stood
outside the empty garage. On both sides the street yawned empty and hollow. The
air was cold and motionless.
    Then the
thought occurred to him. It wouldn’t do to hang around an empty shop at this
time of day. A quiet town and a stranger loitering outside a deserted filling
station. No. It just wouldn’t do. He sighed exasperation. Irritation bubbled
over.
    Once again
Joshua found himself ambling along cemetery street – the empty main street of
Bishop. Except now he was heading in the opposite direction.
    Damn! All he
wanted was to find a bus and get the hell outta here.
    Where was
everyone?
    Since he had
woken up that morning Joshua felt like he was doing nothing but running in
circles. And his mind wasn’t doing much better. There was still the same
fuzziness as before. His thought patterns felt like a ship whose anchor had
repeatedly failed to take hold on the ocean floor below.
    And he hated
to admit it. He was still no closer to catching that damn bus. Booking a ride
to Johannesburg was turning out to be a problem. Josh wondered if he shouldn’t
have hitched a lift instead. Shit. He could have been miles away by now.
Although ...
    He looked up
and down the street trying to rack his memory. Yes. He wasn’t mistaken. He hadn’t
seen one single car pass through here the whole morning. What the hell was
going on? Was he going mad or did he end up in a bad episode of The Outer
Limits? And yet, it was true. He hadn’t sighted any vehicles all morning.
The R45 wasn’t exactly a national highway – that’s exactly why Josh had chosen
it – but then again it wasn’t the ass-end of the world either. So why hadn’t he
seen a single car yet. And why the hell was this town so dead? Maybe it’s
just too early he thought. Trying to placate his uneasiness. It’s barely
seven o’ clock. Right?
    He walked
slowly along main street Bishop retracing his steps. This time he was extra
careful to keep an eye out for anything that would look like a bus depot. He
sighed in irritation.
    Joshua walked
on. At an intersection, he stopped and considered his next move. That’s when he
saw the cop van.
    Its came up a side
street further down the road. And halted at a stop street – its white nose
poking from between the row of buildings. Josh froze. He was in a very
uncomfortable situation. He was standing in the middle of Bishop’s main street.
Not a soul around. Nowhere to go. He was a big fly against a very big very
white wall. And a very big fly swat was about to head this way. Maybe they were
looking for him; maybe they weren’t. Right now Josh didn’t want to take that
chance. So he waited. With bated breath – waited as the van idled at the stop
street and idled and idled. And fucking idled. The cop had seen him, he
was sure. The cop had seen him and was radioing in his description. It wasn’t
too late to run. He felt coils in his legs tighten as he readied himself.
    The van moved.
And turned towards the other direction.
    Josh breathed
for the first time and unclenched his body. He was surprised at the tension
residue that still clung to his limbs. He hadn’t realised he was that ...
afraid? He stood a moment longer. Thinking. Breathing. He looked in both
directions.
    Josh was still
deciding what to do when he saw the girl. The girl that would change his life.
     
 

 
    Jump.
    Go ahead,
jump. Then it’s all over.
    She stood
on the ledge that ran along the perimeter of the 4-Ways Hotel roof. In the
middle of Hillbrow. Johannesburg. The girl with the beautiful chestnut-brown
skin. The girl with the beautiful big eyes; swirled with emerald green, flecked
with sorrow brown.
    Jump.
    Six-storeys
down below Pretoria Street throbbed and ebbed with the night-time traffic of
cars and pedestrians. The garish hues of dozens of neon signs washed the street
in a sickly rainbow of