Chapter Fifteen: Fax
Five days later, on the two week mark since I've seen my wife, my family decides it's a good idea to come into town to make sure I'm okay.
Katherine's family has decided to join as well.
The kids start school on Monday, August twentieth.
It's Saturday, August nineteenth.
They ask me every day if Katherine is going to be home for their first day at school, and honestly, I don't know.
It's tomorrow. I didn't even take them school shopping because I have no idea what to get.
It's Bryson's first day of preschool and Matthew's first day of kindergarten. On top of that, it's Caiden's first day of first grade.
Katherine will be here.
Right? Is she okay?
I feel sick everyday, because why hasn't she called?
I know everyone is starting to want me to file a missing persons report, but Katherine is an adult and she left on purpose.
They're not going to count her as missing.
None of my messages send and all my calls go straight to voicemail.
"Have you checked her bank?"
I look at my Mom in shock.
"What?" I ask.
"Have you checked her bank account? You know, to see if she's spending any money?"
Why didn't I think of that?
I grab my phone and go onto the banking app. I erase my account number and type hers in. I punch in the password and answer the security question, watching the loading bar fill up.
Katherine has over fourteen bank accounts and each account has two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in it, because that's the legal amount you can put in each account.
She has so much money, she has to deposit more than half of it, and it's locked in a safe in the basement. She has a safe so secure that only her fingerprint can open it. She's told me multiple times that the only way somebody is breaking in to rob us blind is if they murder her and put her fingerprint on the padlock.
Most of the account she doesn't use, she only has about three that she has cards for. I check the main one and click on her checking account.
I start shaking my head.
"She's too smart." I mumble.
"What?" Liam asks. "What is it?"
"She withdrew money."
"How much money?" My little sister Ashley asks. She's pregnant and her baby shower is next month.
"A lot of money.
Over fifty thousand dollars.
"When did she do that?" Liam asks.
"The day she left."
Frustrated, I sign out of the account and toss my phone on the couch.
It bounces off and lands on the floor.
Irritated, I pick it up and see I shattered the screen.
Katherine is going to rip me a new one when she finds out. She keeps telling me to get a case. When I told her I didn't like the way cases make my phone look, she said she didn't want to hear it when my phone shatters.
She was right, of course.
The woman is always right.
I shove my shattered phone into my pocket, raking my fingers through my hair and tugging on the ends.
Thank god the kids are playing outside. The fence is up around the pool so Emma can't fall in and get hurt, and the puppy is out there with them.
"I'm going insane." I say, finally not trying to act okay. "The kids are crying every night because they think she's dead, I haven't heard from her in two weeks! We've been separated for months while she was working, but I spoke to her every night. When she leaves I talk to her every day! Her phone hasn't been on in two weeks, she withdrew thousands of dollars so I can't trace her! I mean, what the fuck if he killed her?!"
In pure anger and frustration, my hand connects with the vase of flowers on the counter. It slams against the fridge and shatters, shooting water, glass, and flower all over the floor.
"Dammit." I start walking over there blindly to pick it up.
"Whoa, whoa dude, you're gonna end up getting cut." Liam grabs the back of my shirt and starts pulling me back.
"One of the kids is going to step on it, I need to pick it up-"
"I'll pick it up." Sophia says gently. "Where's the broom?"
I rake my hands through my hair again, tugging on the ends, and then I rest both hands on the kitchen counter, my mind insane with thoughts.
"Josh?" Sophia puts her hand on my arm. "Where's the broom at?"
I force my eyes off of the mess on the floor to look at her, rubbing my forehead insistently. I have such a bad headache.
I think the last time I cried was when Emma was born, but that's just happy tears. It doesn't count. I don't even remember the last time I cried for real.
But I feel like I'm about to go crazy.
"Josh?"
I can't even find words. It's like I've been forced mute.
"I-" I swallow. "I'm gonna go."
"What? Where are you going?" Mom asks.
"Josh, sweetie, just sit down, okay? We can find a way to contact Katherine."
I start shaking my head, rushing out of the room. I grab my sneakers on the way out, shoving open the garage door.
It's been getting suck forever because it's the wrong size for the doorframe.
I keep meaning to fix it but I keep forgetting.
I slam the door shut behind me, pressing the button for the garage door.
Have you ever been so upset, so mentally exhausted that you just want to run?
Because that's me right now. I'm a hairline away from a breakdown.
I can't keep doing this.
Having to hold the kids each night and promise them that my wife isn't dead when I don't even know that? It's too painful.
I just want to talk to her. I just want to hear her voice.
I pull out my shattered phone, running my fingers through my hair.
The next thing I know, I'm grabbing the bike pump and pumping up the tires to my bike.
Katherine said we should all get bikes so the kids can go on bike rides and be active. I agreed but the kids haven't used them once, because they still don't know how to ride them.
I stare at the teal bike.
Teal is her favorite color.
I shake my head to myself and pump up the tire until it's full. I throw my leg over the seat and push up the kickstand, flying out of the garage, pedaling so fast that I'm standing up on the pedals.
______
I was riding the bike around for so long, I wasn't sure where I was until the bell above my head rang.
Now I'm standing in line at a phone repair store, hitting my phone against my hand.
She's just not called because my phone is broken. That's why I haven't heard from her.
When I reach the counter, I clear my throat.
"I dropped it and it broke." I let it fall onto the counter in front of him. "Uh, can you fix it?"
"Yeah, we can fix it." He says.
"Look, just do whatever you have to, alright? I don't care how much it costs, just make it work."
"Okay, it's gonna take about an hour."
"That's fine."
I go to sit down just as another woman does, so I get right back up."
"You sit."
"Oh, no, you sit." She smiles gently. She has a baby on her hip.
"No, go ahead." I gesture to the seat.
"Okay, thanks sweetie."
Sweetie?
I don't respond, I just move out of the way and lean against the wall with my arms folded over my chest, glaring at the floor.
I'm not sure how much time passes, but the light outside changes and I know the sun is going to set soon.
The woman with the child sees the man come out with her laptop and she greet him at the counter, pays, winks at me, and walks out.
I wrinkle my nose.
Does she have blonde hair, blue eyes, and own a large, very expensive magazine company?
No?
Then why the hell is she winking at me? There's only one woman who can get me to respond to a flirtatious wink.
After a few more minutes, the guy who I spoke to comes out with my phone. He nods at me and I walk over to him.
"It's good as new, but unfortunately I did accidentally break your SIM card. I can't replace it, only your phone company can."
I rub my forehead, nodding.
"Oh, that's okay." I say. "How much is it?"
"It's a hundred and twenty dollars."
I nod and pull my wallet from my pocket, my eyes locking on my iPhone.
I can almost hear Katherine's voice in my head.
Baby, what's the point of getting it fixed if you're not going to put a case on it?
I swallow.
"Do you have, um, any cases?"
"Oh, yeah." He walks over to a wall with cases on it and filters through them.
He has a few otter boxes, a clear tech 21 case, and a couple of lifeproof cases.
I've seen the lifeproof symbol on Katherine's phone so many times.
There's one that has a clear back and black sides and it's called the lifeproof next.
It looks pretty good.
"This one." I point to it.
He puts the others back.
"Oh, and uh, this thing." I sigh. I'm so mentally exhausted, it's hard to form a coherent thought. "It's a screen protector. My wife knows what it is, but I can't call her." I frown.
"You can use the store phone. I'm sorry about your SIM card."
"No, I can't call her." I say.
He doesn't ask why, he just stays silent.
"Anyways, it like cracks instead of your phone..."
"Oh, the glass screen protector?"
"Yeah."
He grabs it off the shelf and goes back to the counter.
The price goes up two hundred dollars and fifty six cents.
I hand him my debit card and he swipes it.
He hands it to me with a receipt, and then he installs the screen protector and the case, handing the phone to me.
It feels fatter, and different.
"Thank you." I say.
"You're welcome. Again, I'm sorry about the SIM card."
"It's alright."
I walk out, reaching in my pocket for the car keys on instinct, but then I remember I rode my bike here.
Sighing, I connect to the store WiFi and look up the nearest Verizon Wireless.
______
I rode the bike to Verizon and got a SIM card, and then I rode five miles back home.
My mind is full of all things Katherine.
I push open the garage door after closing the outside door to the garage, and shut it again.
When I walk into the living room, all four of my kids are jumping around in their pajamas and their hair is wet.
"Where have you been?" Mom asks. "Are you okay?"
"I got my phone fixed." I say quietly, looking down at the kids.
"Josh, there's something we have to tell you. Something happened while you were gone." Sophia says.
Her voice is careful, as if she's worried I'm going to take off again.
"What is it?" I sigh.
"This came out of the printer."
She hands me a piece of paper.
Frowning, I look down at it.
Airport: JFK
Scheduled Time: 8:55PM
Terminal: 5
I stare at the paper.
It's United Airlines.
"What is this?" I ask.
"We don't know." Liam says.
I look at my watch.
It's only six something.
"Well, how did it just appear?"
"It just started printing." Dad shrugs.
"It's a fax." My sister Ashely says.
"Somebody faxed the printer with flight information?" I mumble.
"Yeah. Do you know somebody with the fax information?"
I stare at the paper.
"No. Katherine doesn't know it I don't think."
"Okay, is there somebody Katherine works with? Somebody she trusts? Somebody who could know?" Sophia's eyes are full of hope.
And then it dawns on me.
There's one person who probably has our fax information engraved into her brain.
I rush over to the junk drawer in the kitchen, ripping through it until I find the small notebook.
I start flipping through the pages crazily, my hands shaking until I find the number in Katherine's beautiful handwriting and highlighted in blue.
I grab the house phone and dial the ten digit number, holding my breath.
It rings three times and then stops.
"Hello?"
"Isabelle." I breathe.
"Oh, hey Josh." She says.
"Uh, did you fax my house?"
"What?"
"Did you fax my house?" I repeat.
"Oh, with Katherine's flight information. Yeah."
With Katherine's flight information
I rake my fingers through my hair.
"Where did you get this information?"
"What do you mean? She called me-"
"She called you?" I demand.
"Yes, why? What's wrong?"
"Katherine called you? You talked to her?"
"Yes." She sounds confused. "She tried to call you three times or something, she said it kept going to voicemail. She told me to fax that information to you."
"When is this for?"
"Uh, tonight, I think. Yeah, it has to be tonight, because she said she wasn't going to be able to answer if you called back because she'd be on the plane-"
"But you spoke to her? You physically heard her voice?"
"Josh, yes. Why?"
"Have you spoken to her recently?"
"Uh...no, I haven't spoken to her since before you got home from California."
"But she called you?"
"Josh. Your wife called my work desk with her personal phone. She said you weren't answering the phone, she said she was taking a flight home from Utah, that she was there for work or something. She told me she couldn't get ahold of you and asked me to send you that fax. That's all I know."
I pull my phone from my pocket, my hands shaking as I go through my missed calls.
I got three of them from Katherine.
Three missed calls from Katherine.
She called me.
"Okay." I say. "Thanks."
"Is she okay? I mean, there was no reason for her to go to Utah for work."
"Yes." I say, my heart swelling in excitement. "She's fine."
______
I'm eating chicken Parmesan which is my favorite meal and this is making me so happy because I'm so so so so so ready for Katherine to come back because seeing Josh upset makes me want to cry ok
~Sam