A couple of days ago I shared the beginning of a story I wrote while between events at the Burnham Book Festival. Here are links to the first two parts:
https://loiselsden.com/2024/05/17/it-seemed-a-bit-odd/%E2%86%97
https://loiselsden.com/2024/05/19/i-cant-find-my-wife/
Here’s the third and final part of my story of a man who’s wife seems to have gone missing:
I decided I needed help. I went next door again, not to Jean and her daughter but to the other neighbours with the wife called Judy.
“I am sorry to trouble you,” I said. “But I can’t find my wife. I think she has disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“I can’t find my wife.”
“I’ll see if Judy can help,” he said and he called his wife.
His wife came downstairs and he turned round to her and he told her my wife had disappeared. I couldn’t hear properly what he said but Judy said ‘oh dear’ sounding surprised.
Judy came to the door.
“When did you last see her?” She asked. I told her that we had gone downstairs for breakfast and then she had gone to put the empty milk bottles on the step.
Judy asked where I had been and I told her everything I had done and how I had gone out to the car.
I suddenly realised that we were going to be really late for work.
“Would you like me and Ben to come back with you and help you look for her?” Judy said. I think she could see I was worried. I didn’t understand what had happened, I couldn’t understand how my wife could have disappeared.
They came back to our house and I was pleased they wiped their feet on the mat, that was very considerate.
“Would you like me to look round while Ben makes you a cup of tea? You look a bit shaken up,” said Judy.
I did feel a bit shaken up and I took Ben into the kitchen and he made me sit down at the table and he made a cup of tea, and he asked if I liked milk in first. I said no thank you and he made a cup of tea and found the milk.
He was very considerate and didn’t talk a lot.
Judy came back and she looked very worried because she couldn’t find my wife anywhere. Ben asked if I had looked in the garden and I said I had but he unlocked he door and he went outside.
I went to the sink and washed my cup and I could see out of the window that Ben was climbing up on the back wall. I couldn’t think why he thought she might have got over it – I know she is quite fit because she goes to the gym but it was kind of him to check.
He looked over the fence into the other neighbour’s garden but I could tell there was nothing to see.
He came back into the house.
“I think you should call the police,” he said.
“I think you’re right, Ben,” said Judy.
“I am very worried,” I said to them. “”I’m feeling very upset.”
“Would you like Ben to call the police?”
I didn’t know what to say, I was so anxious, Where was my wife?
“I don’t know. You should be going to work now. On nearly every day you leave your house at the same time as my wife and I do.”
“Oh please don’t worry about us! I will call the police right now. Ben, you make another cup of tea!”
Judy went out of the room and Ben told me to sit down at the table and made us both a cup of tea.
He took out his mobile phone and he made two phone calls, one to his work and one to Judy’s work. I was very grateful. I didn’t know what to do. I told him I was very grateful and I didn’t know what to do.
Judy came back and said she had rung the police and they would attend.
“Would you like us to wait until they arrive?” Judy asked.
That was so kind. I felt tears in my eyes.
“That is so kind of you but you will be late for work.”
They insisted and Ben gave me some kitchen paper because I couldn’t stop the tears from running down my face.
Judy said she was going across the road to ask the neighbours on the other side. Maybe they had seen something. Ben sat down at the table with me. He made polite conversation. I think he wanted to take my mind off worrying.
Judy came back quite quickly. The man who lives opposite had seen my wife this morning. He had waved at her when she opened the door to put the milk bottles on the step.
He had seen a car pull up outside our house, a brown Vauxhall Meriva and he said my wife had got in it and the car had driven away. He didn’t think anything of it.
Was it someone giving her a lift to work, Judy asked. No – I give her a lift to work, and then I pick her up after work and we come home and have our dinner.
There was a knock at the door. I knew it wasn’t my wife because she has a key. I was right. It was the police.
I didn’t really want the police, but they were here to help me. They will find my wife. It’s all a bit odd, a bit of a puzzle, but the police will sort it out.
Lois Elsden 