Franny finished her breakfast and went out to the road to wait for the school bus. Jack was reading a magazine in lieu of the morning newspaper that usually arrived in the mail about noon. After another short while I went to Stephanie’s door again, knocked and, receiving no answer, opened the door. She wasn’t in her room and her bed seemingly hadn’t been slept in.

“Stephanie isn’t in her room,” I told Jack.

He didn’t look up from his magazine. “She’s probably left us. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“Don’t make it sound like a vendetta. And I don’t think she’d leave us without saying good-­bye—or taking any of her things.”

I had seen a couple of her dresses in the closet when I looked in from the doorway. I went back now and inspected the room. As far as I could tell, she had taken nothing with her other than the nurse’s uniform she had been wearing.

“Maybe she went home for the night,” Jack suggested.

It didn’t seem likely to me, considering her feeling about her mother and grandmother, but I decided to call them anyway.

Mrs. Reddy answered. “No, Stephanie isn’t here,” she said. Then there was silence. She didn’t ask why I was calling or why Stephanie wasn’t at our house.

“She went out and didn’t come back last night,” I finally said. “We’re concerned about her.”

“Oh, you mustn’t worry,” Mrs. Reddy said breezily. “She’ll turn up. You don’t really need her anymore anyway, do you? I’ll get you someone else if you do. There’s a very well qualified girl in Cainesville who trained at the hospital with Stephanie.”

“I guess we can get along without anyone now. Where do you think Stephanie has gone?”

“She probably got on a bus and went to Cleveland. She has friends there. Or maybe she went to Columbus.”

“But she didn’t take her bag or any extra clothes, as far as I can tell.”

“That wouldn’t matter. Probably she just decided to go on the spur of the moment. She does those things.”

“Without even telling us?”

“Ashamed to tell you, very likely she was. And she ought to be. I’ll give her a good talking to when I see her.” She promised to call us if she heard from Stephanie.

“What should we do now?” I asked Jack.

“Nothing.”

“Should we call the police?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s up to her parents.”

“But they don’t seem to be concerned about her.”

“Then why should we be?”