He’s in the cottage typing in their bedroom upstairs, wife out for a run, daughter’s downstairs with the new farm set they got her the other day, when a screen door slams, sounds like the one to the porch and he yells “Olivia, what are you doing?” no response, “Olivia, Olivia, you hear me?” nothing, runs downstairs, she’s not in the living room, looks out the back windows, not on the porch or the path going down to the water, runs out the other living room door to the front of the house, not there or on the road going up to the town road, runs around the side of the house and looks underneath it, runs around the other side, yells “Olivia, where are you, answer Daddy now,” runs up to the porch, looks around from it, runs into the house, upstairs, not there, looks out the windows, yells out one of the bedroom windows “Olivia, Olivia, do you hear Daddy? come right back to the house,” listens, runs downstairs, kitchen, out the back way and down the path to the water, stops in front of the boathouse and yells “Olivia, where are you? it’s Daddy, yell you’re OK,” waits, no response, no sounds, runs through the boathouse, looks on the beach, nobody on it, no boats in the water, shouts “Olivia, it’s Daddy, are you on the beach somewhere? answer me,” runs up the path along the creek to the house, shouts for her, then yells “Denise, where are you? stop your run, come back quick, Olivia’s missing, Olivia’s lost; Denise, it’s Howard, I need you to help me find Olivia,” runs back into the house the back way, upstairs, under the bed, behind the clothes on the clothes line, looks out the windows, under her bed in their room, downstairs, bathroom, shower stall, guest room off the porch, back inside the house, behind the couch, where else hasn’t he looked? outside the front way, up to the woodshed on the left, around it, in the woods all around the house, calling for her, runs up their road to the town road a quarter mile away, from the town road shouts for Denise and then her, runs back, stops to stare at all the trees past the field, the big boulders and uprooted trees in the field, runs the rest of the way to the house, upstairs to look around and out the windows, downstairs, guest room, under the house, down to the water, runs a little way along the beach both ways, back to the house shouting for her and Denise as he runs, inside, outside, woodshed, cups his hands and yells loud as he can “Olivia, Olivia, yell for Daddy, yell the word
Daddy, yell for me, sweetheart, yell, yell, yell everything’s OK,” listens, “Denise, come quick, Olivia’s not here, I can’t find her, help me to, help me,” bangs his head with his fists, screams “O-liv-i-a,” runs to the back of the house, that’s where he’s almost sure he first heard her go out, wonders where to look next, what to do next, it’ll start to get dark in a couple of hours, maybe hour and a half, he should call the town clerk, the sheriff’s office, the town fire department, they’ll know what to do, in minutes they could have dozens of searchers here, but one more run, down to the water, stands in front of the boathouse and looks up and down the beach, runs right up to the water and looks back at the beach and bushes and trees, runs up the main path, around the house and little way up the road, stops, shouts her name, yells for her to yell she’s here, if she’s in trouble yell help, “Yell anything you want, Olivia, anything, but yell, yell,” listens, bird sounds, wind in the trees, car from somewhere far off, chain saw even farther away, crickets or some insects, runs farther up the road, sees her walking toward the town road about ten feet from her, he’s about a hundred feet away, should he shout? will she know to stop if he doesn’t shout? should he run up without shouting and grab her? she might step onto the town road before he gets there, shout and he might scare her onto the road when she was going to stop at the edge of it, he shouts “Olivia, stop. Olivia, stop. Don’t move another step.” She stops about a foot from the road, turns around and leans her head and body forward as if trying to make out who it is. “It’s Daddy, my sweetheart, stay right there. Don’t move. Don’t do anything, just stand still. Wait till Daddy gets there. In fact, come to me, my darling. Come to me now.” She stays there, still looking at him. What the hell’s wrong? Why’s she doing that? Car shoots past. She turns to it, watches it heading to the point. “Olivia,” he yells, walking to her. Don’t run or she might get scared she did something wrong and run onto the road. “Olivia, look at Daddy.” She turns to him. “Don’t move, sweetheart, stay right there. Just stay there on that spot and don’t move.” Continues walking to her. Van goes past the other way heading to town. She looks at it, turns to him. He continues walking at a normal pace. “Come to me, sweetheart, Daddy wants to give you something.” She doesn’t move. He’s close enough now to see her face seems scared of him or he doesn’t know what. “Anything wrong, sweetheart? Come to Daddy and tell him,” holding his arms out as he walks. Gets about twenty feet from her, smiling so she thinks he’s in a good mood. She just stares. Rattling sounds coming from the point, which she turns to. Car shoots past pulling an empty boat trailer. He walks fast while she’s looking at it, grabs her hand and pulls her down their road a few feet, puts his arms around her and hugs her, then backs up, holds out her hand with one hand and slaps it hard with the other. She starts bawling. He continues holding her with one hand and says “You scared the hell out of me. I slapped you that hard so you’ll remember never to run away like that again. Do you hear me?” She’s crying. “Do you hear what I’m saying?” Still crying, eyes shut tight. “You hear me. I don’t like hitting you but I did it for your own sake. I thought you were lost, that I’d never find you, do you know what that means?” but she’s still crying and he says “OK, but I’m not going to pamper you, it’s too important that you remember the bad you did,” and starts pulling her down the road by her hand, she falls to the ground, intentionally or because she stumbled, and he says “Come on, get up, get up,” and drags her a couple of feet and then picks her up, she’s still crying and puts her head on his shoulder and he lifts it up so she won’t think she can be comforted now, but has to keep holding it up and then says “Oh screw it, you’re smart, you heard and understood everything I said, just please, sweetheart, never run away like that again,” and lets her rest her head, kisses her cheek several times while she’s sobbing, and walks back to the house.