Let the fun continue.! This is the 63rd installment of a continuing fictional story. Before each new segment, the last paragraph from the prior edition will be shown in quotations.

“ When Letters and I arrived back in town, school had been out about 30 minutes and I went on to work early. I would stop by her house on my way home and see if the porch light was still on. I felt like I was carrying a secret that was going to make me bust if I didn’t tell her. I didn’t want to wait until morning. The light was on! ”

By C.L. Harmon

The light was on, but for a very different reason than I had hoped. As I approached the door, I heard my parents in the living room. I was so confused, I knocked once but then opened the door immediately after. Four faces were peering at me. My parents, Sam’s mom and a lady whom I didn’t know. They appeared a bit distraught, but not panicky. “Mom, dad, What are you doing here? It must have been very obvious by my tone that I was confused. My dad calmly asked me if I had seen Sam. They were all standing, which meant something was wrong. I knew this about my parents. They both stood whenever their was a problem. I guess it made them feel as though they had some control over whatever was bothersome to them. “No…I mean yes…this morning we walked to school together. But I haven’t seen or talked to her since.” “Did you not see her at school during the course of the day,” Sam’s mom asked. I felt an overwhelming sensation of panic because I could tell by my parent’s facial expression that they didn’t know I had skipped school that day. I slammed several responses around in my head before spouting one out. “No! I mean sometimes I see her. But today I guess we just missed each other.” It sounded weak and shallow as my words reached my ears, but it must have sounded believable to them. I followed up my response with a quick question about Sam. “We don’t know where she is. She didn’t come home after school. She’s not at the library or the diner and its not like her to not come home or check in. I am probably overreacting, but I am worried. Sam has told me all about you and so I called your parents to ask if you had seen her. They came right over. We were considering calling the sheriff when you knocked.” Sam’s mom was clearly rattled. And from what I knew about Sam, this did seem out of her character. Then it materialized, that nausea in the pit of the stomach when one realizes that something very, very horrible may have occurred. “Dad…I think you might ought to call Elden.” This time I sounded much more confident as those words rushed into my ear canals. He looked very surprised at my response. In fact, they all did. The woman I didn’t know, sat down and fanned herself with a the newspaper resting on the couch but said nothing. “Blake, do you know something? Is there something going on here that we need to know about? Is Sam in some sort of trouble?” The questions were so quickly posed that I had no chance to answer one before the next one was out. “I don’t know dad. She might be. I can’t explain it right now. But if we can sit down with Elden, I think we may be able to tell you what’s going.” “Son if you know something, you need to tell us. If that girl is in some sort of trouble, we don’t have time for games.” He was calm, but I knew there was a bit of anger in his commanding tone and stiff stature. “If I tell you what I know, which may not even have anything to do with Sam, you will think I have…” The door opens and Sam walks in and almost humorously asks what is happening. However, her look at me was anything but comical. It was one of concern, but not for her, but for me. She knew something. She definitely knew something.