In the previous chapters:
– Raph celebrated his birthday
– Daisy and Val had a baby-boy
– Jeremy prepared his seclusion
– Jane started to live with her brother and Daisy.

Many thanks to the creators of the c.c. I used in this story. A special mention to Fredbrenny for her help.

*****

Chester looked at Ilona who had just put the babies to bed and had changed into her gym clothes. She always had been an active person and lately she didn’t have much time to work out. She saw the look in his eyes and asked him – Do you mind if I go out to do some footing? –

He answered: – Not, if you kiss me first. – They embraced and before leaving the house, Ilona said: – Stay awake, I’ll be back in the blink of an eye. –

– Is that a promise? – 

– Yes, it is my Darling. –

After his shower, Chester was lying on the bed and thought that finally his wife could relax a bit more. Very soon the triplets would have their birthday and go to school. That meant that Ilo would have more time to herself. And, as a matter of fact, he himself would be less stressed as well. Lately he hadn’t done very much to obtain promotions in his work. Although he loved his work, he loved his family even more and they always came first place. They wouldn’t have any more children of their own and Ilona was already a grandmother of little Daniel, Val’s son. Their family was complete.

He thought how fortunate they had been that her twins had started looking for her. He was happy for her and for himself. He remembered that Ilona had had nightmares these past few years and had talked in her sleep about a fire and the children. They didn’t know it by then but later they understood that her sub conscience must have known about the big fire that caused the following tragedy for the twins.
He heard the front door opening and Ilona said: – Hi love, I’m going to have a shower I’ll be with you in just a moment. –

Both were very relaxed, especially knowing that the triplets didn’t need as much attention as they used to before. They had been taught already the basic things. they were potty trained; they walked quite secure and, very important, they could talk. Now they didn’t need to cry in order to draw the attention.

When Ilona came to bed, he took her gently in his arms and they hugged each other dearly. They commented how lucky they were and that they should be grateful that life treated them so good. After a while they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Next day, Ilona got up early to wake the children and prepare their breakfast. Mattie hadn’t come home. Yesterday he went with his friend Raph. Surely he stayed there as he often did. Ilona knew that Cynthia would take good care of him. It had been like that from when he was younger and now, as a teenager, he still was fond of Raph’s mother. Ilona prepared Chessie and Marvin for school and as their maid would come in today, she spent some quality time with the girls. Soon they would have to go to school as well so she just enjoyed having them still around.

She was expecting Mattie to arrive from school soon, but the school bus passed without stopping. ‘Hey, that’s uncommon for Mattie that he goes to Raph’s place without saying so.’
Shortly after, the telephone rang. – Yes, hello…? –  It was Cynthia: – Hi Ilona! Is everything all right with Mattie? Is he ill? Raph told me that he wasn’t in class today. –
Ilona felt as if an ice cold hand touched her heart. Fear started to nestle in her chest and she hardly could say: – I thought he was with you…; he didn’t come home last night! –

Now Cynthia’s voice sounded worried as well. – He has been here and even had lunch with us. I trained him doing Sim-Fu with the dummy and he was quite pleased with that. At some point I didn’t see him anymore and I thought they would be in Raph’s room but Raph said that Mat was in the kitchen and suddenly in a hurry. He ran out and my son thought that he was going home to you. I think you ought to call the Police. –

Cynthia got very nervous thinking that it was surely not common that the Police hadn’t picked him up. She remembered that she in her young years had been caught more than once in spite of knowing the places where to hide, she always ended up in the police car. What could have happened?

Ilona had that same thought ‘What could have happened?’
Chessie and Marvin had come home already and they hadn’t seen Mattie either.

Ilona called the Police and very soon an officer came to see her.

That same police officer went to Cynthia’s house afterwards to hear what had happened exactly. When he noticed the boy wasn’t there either, he went back to the Police Station.

The police corps combed the whole city looking for Mattie. During the day, they looked around and asked everybody.

They searched even during the night on many unsuspected places.

They had put up a picture of him in different shops asking if somebody had seen that boy and that they should call the Police Station or the Hemmingway Family if they had. Giving out their private number hadn’t been such a good idea because now the Hemmingways received calls from unknown people, who stated they had seen him. It always was a false alarm. The local newspaper sent a journalist to get the information for an article on this disappearance.

That night, Chester and Ilona didn’t sleep at all. Cynthia and Raph were very nervous as well and Val had visited his mother and stated that he and Jane would be looking during the evening hours to see if they could find him. They went to the big lake and felt frustrated that they couldn’t do more.

Chester and Ilona lived a nightmare. A few days later there was a picture of a small boat that had been washed ashore on the front page of the Sunset Valley Gazette and underneath there was a short article:
‘The Police still are looking for Mateo Hemmingway, the teenager who disappeared mysteriously on Tuesday afternoon. Nobody has seen the boy. Yesterday evening the wrack of a small boat was found on one of the smaller
Sunset Valley beaches. This leads to the idea that the boy took this boat and that the search will now be extended to the sea. Feared is he might have drowned. Today a team of divers will start looking for the boy.’

Ilona was desperate. Chester hadn’t been working that whole week trying to support his family. Jane had come to give a helping hand with the triplets because Ilona wasn’t capable of doing anything.

And so it happened that the three girls, Jenny, Jessica and Joyce had their birthday without anybody being aware of it. Nobody felt like celebrating anything. When Ilona all of a sudden saw that her daughters had grown, she felt guilty. She hugged them and made her excuses for not having bought them a birthday cake telling them she would make up with them. While she was kissing the girls her cell phone rang.

The Police told her that they had given up looking for the boy here in Sunset Valley. They would broaden their horizon and would investigate if he was perhaps in Twinbrook or Riverview. The divers had not found anything either. If she wanted to know more, she could meet them at the Police Station.
Chester and Ilona went there quickly and they saw the police men on the square and asking them about the case, they advised her to try and pick up their regular life and that they would be the first ones to learn if there would be new information.

Chester tried to stay positive and said that at least they were looking somewhere else. But Ilona’s world scattered into bits and pieces.

Once at home Ilona said downhearted: – This is the beginning of the end of their investigations. They’re giving the case out of hands to another police department. We can forget about our son. –  Her eyes stayed dry. She just didn’t have anymore tears to shed.

Everyone…, family and friends tried to cheer her up but deep inside they thought the same.

To be continued…