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The Jury
by
Amy Sorensen
Chapter 1
It was the 6th of February when the first child went missing. The poor parents, they were distraught. The police tried to talk to them, find out where she was. The father mumbled something about her playing outside all afternoon. The mother was frantically trying to say everything at once through floods of tears. She explained that Elidi had been playing ‘Tea Parties’ on the grass where lots of local children tended to gather.
On this particular day, Elidi was alone but only a few feet from the door of her house. So close to know if something was wrong, so close to home, but clearly, not close enough. Poor Mrs. Rose was having trouble getting the words out. She knew what she was trying to say but the words hardly ever managed to form on her lips before they disintegrated into uncontrollable sobs.
PC Parker was just about able to decipher what the hysterical mother of three was trying to say. Elidi was playing alone, perfectly safe to her parents’ knowledge, when she was called in for tea by her father. Mr Rose saw that she was no longer sitting on the grass but instead, her little plastic teapot was turned over on its side and the cups and saucers lay scattered over the grass. He alerted his wife and they searched everywhere for their daughter, but she was nowhere to be seen. He then rang the police to inform them of the disappearance. PC Parker arrived at the door and here she was now, finally receiving the full explanation.
"Try not to worry, Mr. and Mrs. Rose, I’m sure your daughter will be fine. Most cases of missing children turn out to be just the child’s idea of a joke. She’s probably hiding out somewhere, unaware of the trouble she’s caused you. Could she be at a friend’s house, perhaps?" said the young PC.
"I, I, we’ll ring around, speak to other parents. Please, please find our daughter, officer. Bring her back to us," Mr. Rose said hurriedly.
"We’ll do everything we can to find Elidi,
Mr. Rose. Contact her friends’ parents and try to get a good nights sleep.
Everything will be fine." Said PC Parker reassuringly
as she left the house.
'It’s just a little kid mucking about,' Emma told herself. 'These things hardly ever turn out to be anything more than a game of ‘Hide and Seek’ or the child hiding out at a friend’s house. Still, the parents must be feeling terrible,' she thought, and cringed as she imagined the same thing happening to her own two-year-old daughter.
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