Drowning in His Thoughts

Good morning!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  Did anyone do anything interesting?  I just worked unfortunately, but it is now time for a new story!  This is another story for Grammy’s Grid and the prompt for this story goes as follows:

The fish in the aquarium looked as if they…

I must admit, this one was a little difficult for me because I wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to take with it.  I actually wrote 2 different opening paragraphs before I decided on what I wanted to do.  So this story is a Feel Good story, which isn’t a common occurrence on the blog, but it is nice to write a nice story every once in a while.  Enjoy!

Drowning in His Thoughts

The fish in the aquarium looked as if they had been dead for days if not a week.  The water was starting to turn a muck brown from the decaying bodies and the algae that was growing along the walls of the tank.  Every single fish was belly up, floating along the top of the water as if they were still alive. The motor on the water pump had burnt out from running for too long or having too much dirty water run through it.

Shawn sat in the middle of the room and thoroughly took in everything that was there.  The bed was unmade and the two pillows strewn across the floor. A set of pajamas and bunny slippers laid on the floor near the headboard of the bed, one pant leg was bent in a way that made the pants look like they were running away from something.  Few things sat on top of the bedside table including a cup of water, a book with a pink bookmark 3/4th of the way through the pages, a pair of headphones, a bottle of lotion, and a small bottle of pills. Shawn’s eyes moved over toward the dresser where one drawer was left open.  A few photo frames sat on top of the dresser, each one filled with photos of family and friends. Every photo had smiles and happiness plastered all over them, but was that what was really happening while the photo was taken?

As Shawn let out a sigh, he slowly stood up.  He was trying to get in the mind of Maggie, trying to find out what happened and why she had disappeared.  He was so worried about her, he knew she was busy with school and work but he never suspected that she had disappeared.  He stepped over to the dresser and picked up a photo of the two of them on their last date, 4 days before she was last heard from.  They were so happy, or at least he thought they were.

“Maggie…where did you go?  Or I guess I should ask what happened to you?  Did you run away on your own? Or did somebody take you?”  He turned and sat down on the bed to think, tears starting to form on the corners of his eyes.  “Why didn’t I try looking for you sooner?”

Shawn felt his phone start to vibrate in his pocket.  He quickly grabbed for it and answered, even though it was a number that he didn’t recognize.  “This is Shawn.”

A very timid voice answered on the other end of the phone.  “Shawn? It’s me, Maggie.”

Shawn stood up, he couldn’t believe that she was calling him.  “Maggie! Where are you? Are you okay? What happened? I can’t believe you’re calling me!”

There was silence on the other end of the phone.  “I don’t know where I am, I’m okay, and I still don’t really know what happened.  All I know is that I’m using a payphone outside of a Carl’s Jr. Wait…” Shawn could hear her asking someone if they knew the address.  “I’m at 3298 Lafayette Street in Jonestown. Just…come get me. Hurry.”

Shawn was already out her front door when she said that.  “I’m on my way baby. Just stay inside and I will be there as soon as I can.  Okay?”

There was a slight pause on the other end of the phone.  “Okay. I just…I hope they don’t find me…”

“They won’t Maggie.  Stay positive. Hide in the bathroom if you need to.  Have you called the police?”

“Not yet, I’ll call them once I get off the phone with you.  But I wanted to at least call you to let you know I was okay.  Just come get me please.”

“I’m on my way.  I love you.” Shawn hung up the phone and started typing in the address to see he was 30 minutes away from where she was.  He raced to his car and started the engine, carefully pulling onto the street and making his way towards Maggie. He had to make sure she was safe and okay.

His thoughts clouded his mind as he drove toward the Carl’s Jr. It was almost as if he was drowning in his thoughts; he couldn’t think straight.  Shawn almost missed the exit he needed to take because he was only thinking of Maggie. He prayed that she wasn’t hurt and that he could just whisk her back to her apartment.  

But he also couldn’t stop blaming himself.  He hadn’t heard from her in a week which was a long amount of time.  He should’ve gone to check on her even though she told him that she was always busy.  And he should’ve fed her fish when he first went to check to see if she was okay. She wasn’t going to be happy that her beloved fish were dead, but she should at least be happy to be alive.  He should’ve tried harder to find out if she was missing, maybe he could’ve found her sooner. But, it wasn’t how things worked out and he had to find a way to accept that.

Shawn pulled into the parking lot and quickly parked his car.  He raced inside to see Maggie talking to 2 officers. She saw him walk in and immediately stood up and ran over to him.  He embraced her, squeezing her so close against him that he was afraid he was going to snap her body in half. But he didn’t want to let her go and lose her again.  She looked up at him, tears steaming down her face. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I’m just glad that you’re okay.  I should’ve checked to see if you were home after you didn’t answer the phone for four days.”  He kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry, I let you down.”

Maggie shook her head.  “No, you wouldn’t have known.  I told you that if I don’t answer my phone that I’m probably busy.  That’s my fault for making you think that I will always be okay.” She laid her head against his chest.  “Don’t leave me please. I want you to sit with me through the questions. Please.”

Shawn looked over her head at the officers who nodded.  “Of course.” They sat down and Maggie answered every question the officers asked her.  It felt like it was taking forever, but Shawn didn’t really care. He finally had closure for his thoughts.  She didn’t blame him and she was safe. The kidnappers were still out there somewhere but at least Maggie was safe.  Shawn wasn’t going to let Maggie out of his sight until everything died down. And hopefully that wouldn’t take too long.