“What have you done?” Karen demanded of Mandy.

Mandy shook her head, crying.

Tyler slipped her a bottle of pills that should have done the trick, but they just made her ill. He pushed her down the stairs, but her little sin outlived her sprained wrist.

Karen’s rage grew in proportion to Mandy’s belly, and soon the shame of their family was front and center for all to see, though they didn’t see the half of it. Karen vowed to learn the identity of the father, insisting that she had the right to look into the face of the boy who had made her only child a whore.

Karen’s Thursday night drinking turned into every night. She’d hit the bars after her shift and not be home for hours. Tyler ran out of the blank pages in his book, but he was also running out of time, and out of ideas.

***

The search for Mandy was quiet, lackluster. The police, upon hearing the sordid tale of her pregnancy and her mother’s reaction, assumed she was a runaway. They said they’d keep an eye out, assured Karen and Tyler that she’d show up.

But Karen still pored over every paper in the county, searching for anything that might be a clue. She’d burst into a panic of tears at every Jane Doe she saw in the news, call the detective and make him check.

“We’re already checking, ma’am,” he’d say, and Karen would dry her eyes with the newsprint, smearing dark ink across her face.

***

Tyler enjoyed the first few weeks after Mandy’s disappearance. Free from her seduction, he remembered why it was he’d fallen in love with his wife. She was a good woman, after all, and she needed him so much in her time of crisis. She cried on his shoulder. She was so vulnerable, almost like a child. He was needed—he could take her in his arms and show her that there was more to life than her absent, delinquent daughter. He could stroke her hair and reassure her that she hadn’t chased Mandy away. Well, not completely. He couldn’t assuage all of her guilt. As long as she carried the blame, she wouldn’t look for it elsewhere.

Every morning, their stoop was covered in newspapers. He helped her read through them, looking for any suspicious reports. His anxiety was genuine, and she loved him for it.

***

My bones are heavy

But they float.

As long as there is water enough

I can taste the air.

***

The baby should have come October 15th. Or close to that, from the last time Tyler remembered Mandy bleeding. It was the day she would have become the mother of his child. He started drinking early, and didn’t do as much to comfort Karen as he should have.