Chap 40
My wife, I miss you
“Don’t find Jessica! You’re all stupid, incompetent!” Lexi yelled at the man across the phone.
“Where is Jessica?” Arsene asked. He was looking for Jessica as much as he could. However, he still didn’t know her existence.
“I don’t know!”
Lexi’s voice sounded resentful. ”There were three possibilities, Beryl takes Jessica away, Jessica runs away of her own free will, and the last is that something terrible happened while the woman waited for Lexi’s arrival,’ he thought.
Lexi looked at the Flight Information Display System, checking Beryl’s departure schedule. About twenty minutes ago, the only plane to Singapore boarded.
Without wasting any more time, Lexi immediately left the airport. There was nothing he could do but wait for Beryl to arrive in Singapore. The wife was not carrying a phone. The wife’s old gadget was still in his hands.
“Jessica!” Lexi said. Almost all the way from the airport to home. He could not focus, the image of the wife continued to pass through his mind. ‘I wonder where Jessica is. She’s in Singapore? Where did she run off to? It’s late? Is he hard to eat? Is she wearing a sweater?’
Lexi was almost crazy because he couldn’t stop thinking about Jessica. Every now and then he looked at the numbers on his watch, the clock was moving so slowly he couldn’t wait to call Beryl.
Lexi’s car stopped in the garage. The man lowered his head, leaning against the steering wheel of the car. He felt guilty. If he had apologized last night, Jessica wouldn’t have run away with Beryl.
Lexi snorted resentfully. He got down from the car. He walked into his house. He couldn’t escape from his mother, he didn’t find Jessica yet.
“Where is Jessica? She ran away, right? It’s all your fault that Jessica didn’t come home to this house!” Mrs. Anna was upset.
Mr. Samuel held his wife’s arm. He stopped Mrs. Anna who yelled at his son.
“I have told you before, because of you, Jessica left you!” Mrs. Anna blurted out that sentence with emphasis. She immediately left the living room, and passed to her room.
“Don’t you know where Jessica is?” Mr. Samuel asked. It was a small talk. He had sent several people to help find Jessica, but until now there was no information about her whereabouts.
Lexi shook his head slowly.
“Take a break, don’t miss dinner! I will help you to find Jessica!” Mr. Samuel smiled, assuring Lexi that everything would be fine.
“Yes, Dad!” Lexi hastily left the living room. He walked upstairs to his room on the second floor.
Nothing’s changed. Jessica’s shadow, her face, her smile were getting real. “Where are you Jess!” Lexi screamed. He got over thinking cause he couldn’t find her yet.
For an hour, the man just walked here and there. He kept looking at his phone screen, waiting for Beryl to receive a message from him, as well as waiting for news from Arsene and Ronald.
Lexi immediately called Beryl after Beryl opened a message from her.
“Are you tricking me? I’ll report you to the police if you hide Jessica, tell me, Jessica leave for Singapore with you, right?”
The cruel accusation he made, because he no longer knew where to find for Jessica.
“Wait, it looks like you misunderstood!” Beryl interrupted.
“What, misunderstood?”
Lexi’s question sounded more like a snap than a good question. His brain was no longer able to think clearly, full of prejudice against Beryl.
“Yes, you are misunderstood! Jessica did not come to Singapore. She herself chose to stay in Jakarta and chose to stay with you!” Beryl explained.
“I can’t trust you, Beryl!” Lexi urged. He didn’t want to be fooled by a young boy.
“I swear to you! Jessica is not here, Jessica was at the airport and waiting for your arrival, ” he was strictly speaking. “If you don’t believe it, just look at the airport CCTV!” Lexi ended the phone call at this urgent moment, like right now.
“Jessica, where are you?”
He couldn’t stop thinking about Jessica. He had to go to the airport at this time to check CCTV to find out where his wife was.
***
Lexi stared at the monitor screen. It didn’t seem obvious but Lexi was sure that the woman walking out of the airport at 07:33 PM was Jessica.
That meant Beryl wasn’t lying. ‘Where Jessica is now? If Jessica does not come to Singapore, it means that my wife is still in Jakarta.’ He thought.
Lexi ran towards the airport parking area. He had to go on a search immediately, no matter how late the night got. Lexi drove his car to the orphanage. ‘I hope Jessica gets back to that place.’
“Jessica!” Lexi muttered many times. Even when he closed his eyes, the shadow of his wife didn’t want to disappear from his mind.
He arrived at the orphanage, it was late at night. The clock was 10:05 PM.
Lexi got out of the car. He walked, and knocked on the door. It didn’t stop, until Mrs. Grace actually opened the door for him.
“Lexi, what’s going on here tonight?” Mrs. Grace was shocked by Lexi’s presence.
“There was a little fight between me and Jessica, did she go here?” Lexi asked. He looked outside where it was raining. He was more worried about Jessica.
“Come in, Jessica might go to Chelsea’s house!” Mrs. Grace was very sure that her foster child was staying at her best friend’s house. There was a man looking for Jessica before.
“No Mom, I have to find Jessica!” Lexi answered.
“Then you have take a drink first, look at your face, it is so pale!” Mrs. Grace barely recognized Lexi.
“No, I have to find Jessica!”
Lexi stood up from her seat.
” Lexi!” Mrs. Grace called in a voice two octaves louder than before.
“Yes?” he replied.
“Come in, I’ll make you a hot drink! Then you can continue looking for Jessica!”
“Okay,”
Lexi went into this house.
Mrs. Grace walked to the kitchen to make a drink, while Lexi went into Jessica’s former room. The room still looked neat even though the owner left. It smells like Jessica’s body. It made Lexi miss his wife even more.
He felt so tired, Lexi laid down while hugging Jessica’s bolster. If he could, he really hoped that Jessica would soon appear. Delusions along with drowsiness made Lexi fall asleep in Jessica’s room. He was deliberately hugging the bolster, to treat his longing for his wife.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.
“Jessica!” he said softly. In his sleep Lexi kept calling out his wife’s name.
Mrs. Grace arrived at Jessica’s room, finding Lexi already asleep. She didn’t dare to wake him. He closed the room door and let Lexi rest.
The middle-aged woman tried to call Chelsea, while waiting for Lexi to wake up.
At 00. 12 AM, Lexi’s phone rang. He woke up and picked up a phone call from Arsene.
“Hello.” Lexi really hoped Arsene brought good news about Jessica’s whereabouts.
“Where are you sir?”
“I’m in the orphanage, what’s wrong? Do you have any information about Jessica?” Lexi asked impatiently. Jessica, that name managed to occupy his mind while he slept or awake.
“I was on my way to the orphanage, there was a hit-and-run victim whose features resembled Miss Jessica, I will confirm it!” Arsene told. For 18 hours he had been looking for Jessica. If the hit-and-run victim was Jessica, Arsene really wished her get well.
* * *