The Breeder's Daughter

Chapter 37 | Mother of Rumors

Three days after that night, a police patrol officer came to Mason Park to confirm that Cooper Lawley was, in fact missing. And not just from Mason Park, but the entirety of the republic.

The officer's blue and red siren car lights illuminated the rusted Mason Park gate, casting ghostly shadows of Mother Mindy's and Mother Jaylor's worried faces as they stood receiving the unsettling news in the chilly November air. We all ditched our breakfast at the table, much to Chef Estreaus dismay, and rushed out to the gate,

"Report's come in, we haven't been able to find him ma'am. All we know is he was last spotted at a warehouse at Mason City."

Mother Edita hurriedly ushered all twelve of us away from the gate and back to the main building before we could hear anything more,

"C'mon girls. We've got chores to do and things to prepare. Get moving." After depositing us in the building, she ran back to the gate and shooed away the four or five boys that had gathered to hear the news of Cooper's disappearance.

We piled into the main building and busied ourselves cleaning up the mess in the gathering room, which was basically a giant living room of sorts decorated with a mess of furniture that didn't match in any way.

The giant windows in the gathering room overlooked the entrance gate, giving us a clear shot of the officer and Mothers Mindy and Jaylor, we all tried to look as discreet as we watched them, cleaning under couches, polishing couches, dusting shelves, pretending to dust, anything to keep us in that room and in the know.

From the group of boys Mother Edita had shooed away, one boy stood back, the officer motioning for him to come. James. He stood conversing with the officer and the trio of Mothers for a few minutes and then retreated to the boys building after his friends.

The gathering room was a hush of whispers, I was cleaning up under a set of couch cushions, mindlessly clearing up the mass of crumbs and lint that lay under them.

"I can't believe he's gone." Kernel said, a pile of neatly folded blankets in her hands,

"I know. Do you think, you know, he might've had anything to do with it?"

Kernel bit her lip, considering this possibility, after breakfast yesterday I told her about what really happened when I was gone, as much of it as I could that is without mentioning the tattoo and a few other things I wasn't ready to tell her just yet. But she knew James took me along with him and Cooper on their trip to the Mason City warehouse. And she knew, too, that he abandoned me, and now it seemed like maybe I wasn't the only one he'd ditched there.

"It doesn't make sense, they're best buddies. I have a hard time believing he would just leave Cooper there, and I don't know, it just wouldn't make sense."

"Well I had a hard time believing he would just randomly ditch me in the middle of nowhere, but he did." With the boys and girl buildings being so far away, and a full schedule to keep us busy, there hadn't been time to confront James since I'd gotten back. In fact, it was my first time seeing him while he stood conversing with the officer several minutes ago.

"You know what I think?"

"What?" I asked placing back the cushions in their place.

"We should just ask him."

I turned to face her,

"Right Kernel, because we can just casually go over to the boys building unnoticed and talk about how he had given me a ride then ditched me, and then accuse him of having done that to Cooper. Very inconspicuous."

"No listen, obviously we won't do it like that. We'd probably get in trouble. Listen, when I deliver mail to Master Davidson's office, I always pass by him, he's always doing something with the shrubs there, and then I can pass on the message to him to meet with us somewhere at a more discreet time."

I took a few blankets off of Kernel, then began walking alongside her to take them to the store room, noticing that the blue and red flashing lights have long stopped shining into the room.

"Tell him to meet us in the library by the computer after curfew tonight."

***

All sorts of rumors circulated Cooper's miraculous disappearance over dinner that night, at which, none of the grown ups cared to comment.

"He probably ran away." This was Emily, the mother of rumors if rumors ever had a mother,

"They said they can't find him anywhere Emily, if he ran away they would've been able to find him. Somebody probably stole him and shipped him out of the republic for pocket money." Bianca said, and I got the feeling that maybe Emily wasn't the mother of rumors, maybe it was Bianca.

"What if he just disappeared. Like somebody invented something to make people disappear and used it on Cooper." Deeka deadpanned, she rarely talked and when she did, it was always something weird like this.

"What a weirdo." Shayla said over a mouthful of her mashed potatoes, shooting Deeka a dirty look.

"Did you pass on the message?" I quietly say to Kernel in the spot next to me,

She dipped her bread in Chef Estreaus chicken soup then popped it into her mouth, "Yep. Tonight."
***