Caught In A Bind. Gayle Roper

      “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

      I shot Jolene a look. “Easy, girl.”

      She scowled at me but lowered the intensity level considerably.

      “I don’t know,” Edie repeated, her voice again full of tears.

      I stuffed Jolene’s napkin in Edie’s hand just to be prepared. “Then how do you know there’s a problem?”

      She forced herself to look at us. “Tom didn’t come home last night.” Then she looked away, embarrassed.

      Jolene slapped the table, making Edie and me jump. “Another woman! It’s got to be. The rat!”

      “Jolene!” I was appalled at the suggestion.

      Edie paled. “No! Please, God, no.” It was an anguished prayer.

      “That can’t be the problem,” I said, ever eager to comfort. “I’ve seen you and Tom together. If ever two people loved each other, Edie, it’s you guys.”

      “I always thought so too.” She looked at us with haunted eyes. “But what if I’m wrong? What if Jolene’s right?”

      Just then our waitress brought Jolene and me our salads. I stabbed a cucumber, but it might as well have been Styrofoam for all the taste it had.

      “He wasn’t in an accident or anything, was he?” I asked. “Maybe he was injured and couldn’t contact you.”

      “Merry the Merciful.” Acid etched Jolene’s comment. “Always looking for the Pollyanna way out.”

      “It’s better than always assuming the worst.” I stabbed a poor, innocent cherry tomato since I couldn’t stab Jo, and it shot through the air and landed on the table of an elderly couple across the aisle. When they looked up in surprise at the incoming missile, I made believe it wasn’t mine.

      “I spoke to the hospital and the police,” Edie said. “The hospital says he’s not there, and the police say there was no accident involving bodily injury last night anywhere in the county.”

      “That’s good.” I gently skewered another tomato. It shot a stream of red juice and seeds straight at my heart. I stared at the red stain on my new pink blouse and sighed. That’s what I got for not being brave enough to own up to the first cherry bomb.

      Edie smiled weakly. “I can’t decide whether it’s good news or bad news.”

      I remembered the old line: If I have to choose between another woman’s arms and mangled in the street, I’ll take mangled in the street anytime.

      “Well, it’s only one night.” Jo took a huge bite of garlic bread.

      I think she was trying to be encouraging after her initial outrage, but Edie shook her head. “We vowed when we got married that we’d never be separated for the night unless it was unavoidable. And then we’d always call.”

      “So he couldn’t find a phone.” Even without Edie and Jolene’s stares, I knew that was a foolish line in this day and age.

      “Did he show up at work this morning?” Jolene asked.

      Edie shook her head. “They haven’t seen him at the dealership since nine last night. It’s like he’s disappeared.”

      “Aliens,” said a snide voice behind me. “Though why they’d want him is beyond me.”

      “Randy!” With a mixture of surprise and hurt Edie looked at her son looming behind her. “What are you doing here?”

      “I got your message about going to dinner with the girls.” Somehow he made those few words sound like Edie was participating in a Roman orgy. “I came to get some money.”

      “How did you get here?” Edie asked.

      “I rode my bike.” He glanced out the window where we could see it chained to a parking meter. “Only four more months until I get my car. Then I’m never riding a bicycle again in my life!”

      He was getting a car for his sixteenth birthday? He bad-mouthed Tom and still expected a car? What gall!

      He extended his hand to Edie, palm up. “Money.” It was a command.

      “But I gave you your allowance the other night.” Edie scrambled to sound forceful but failed. “You wanted it early because you and the guys were going out somewhere.”

      “Well, it’s gone. I need more.” He stared down at her, tall, handsome and hostile.

      I wanted to poke him hard, inflict a little pain. Edie just sighed and began rummaging in her purse.

      “By the way, Mom.” I could hear the nasty glee in Randy’s voice and knew he was going to say something that would hurt Edie. “The police were at the house.”

      “What?” Edie grabbed his arm. “Did they say anything about Tom? Is he hurt? Where is he?”

      “Don’t get all overheated, Mom.” Randy pulled free. “They don’t know where Tom-boy is. In fact, they’re looking for him, just like you.”

      Edie blinked. “But why?”

      I studied the blond man-child with the wicked glint in his eyes. “Exactly what did the police say, Randy?”

      “They said—” and he paused for effect. “They said that they needed to talk with Tom.”

      “That was it?” Edie asked.

      He looked at his mother with a smirk. “Isn’t that enough, Mom? I mean, the cops are after him!”

      Jolene opened her mouth to retort when a sweet young voice called, “Hey, Randy.”

      Randy jerked like he had been hit with a taser. He spun to look at the lovely girl passing us on her way to a table on the other side of the restaurant. Gone was the smart-mouthed kid who delighted in causing his mother distress and in his place was a self-conscious, thoroughly smitten young man who stared at the little ebony-haired beauty, his heart in his eyes.

      “Sherrie,” Randy managed to say. “Hey, yourself.” He wandered after her as if he couldn’t do anything else.

      “His tongue’s hanging out so far he’s going to step on it any moment,” Jolene muttered, but she was laughing.

      The girl was with a woman who had to be her mother, their hair and eyes showing that relationship clearly. A young man was with them, probably a brother by the casual way he treated Sherrie. When Randy, all charm, took the last seat at the table without waiting for an invitation, the young man looked at his mother and just shook his head.

      Edie stared at her son in wonder. “Look at him. He’s being polite.”

      “You’ve done a good job as a mom, Edie,” I said. “Maybe a better job than you realized.”

      She grunted, unconvinced, and we finished our meal. When the bill came, we gathered our belongings and went to the cash register. Edie glanced toward Randy, but he was studiously avoiding us as he listened attentively to Sherrie’s mother talk.

      Edie giggled as we left the restaurant. “He never did get the money he wanted. He’ll ruin any good impression he might be making when he pulls out an empty wallet and that poor girl’s mother has to pay for his food.”

      “Serve him right,” Jolene said succinctly.

      We walked in the spring dusk to the parking lot behind the News and dispersed to our separate cars. I was just about to put the key in my ignition when a thought struck me. I climbed out of the car and walked to Edie, who sat staring out the windshield of her little red Focus.

      “Edie, Tom will be at work for two to three more hours.” Assuming he was at work and not missing. “Let’s stop for a video and watch it together until he gets home.”

      I