The Disappeared by Vernon William Baumann Read Free Book Online

pure unconditional love with which she would help
Minki try it on and the huge endless hug that would follow. A timeless moment
between mother and daughter. Then there was the conversation – projected way into the future – where she would tell her mommy about her first boyfriend.
Like two best friends, they would sit on Minki’s bed and talk excitedly about first
love, whispering and giggling into the midnight hours. This dream was one of
the more extensive ones. Her first love would become a high school sweetheart
and after university – she had to attend university, daddy and mommy
insisted – they would marry. She imagined the tears her mommy would cry on that
most beautiful day. On the morning of the wedding, Minki and her mother would
share a very special conversation – the kind of words that can only be spoken
between a mother and daughter on that beautiful day – that most beautiful day.
    Now, as Minki
stood before her mother she remembered the words. She remembered every single
word. As Minki stood before the photograph, she needed so badly to hear those
words again.
    She wiped the
tears from her eyes and suddenly longed for her daddy. He was strict. He was
fierce. He never smiled. But she loved him. And right now she wanted to feel
his strong arms around her, wanted to smell his Aramis after-shave. Wanted
to feel the thump of his heart-beat through the cotton of his work shirt while
she touched his rough face.
    She exited her
room. Maybe her daddy was already awake. It was early but maybe just.
    He worked so
hard her daddy. He was a lawyer at Obsidian Technologies – the big modern
building up on Bishop’s Berg – and was their Chief Legal Consultant. It was a
source of great pride for Minki that she could remember the big title.
    Her daddy
worked so hard and she always tried to be quiet in the morning hours before he
woke up. Usually she daren’t wake him up. But this morning Minki needed to be
with him. Maybe, just maybe, he was already awake. She slipped out of the room
and carefully walked along the passageway that led to the staircase.
    Her daddy had
been a very successful lawyer in Johannesburg. But then mommy died. He almost
had a nervous breakdown. Aunty Terry said he almost killed himself. Then her
daddy decided he had to leave. Had to get away from the place that was alive
only with dead memories. That’s when they came to Bishop. Some of it her daddy told
her; the rest had – of course – come from Aunty Terry.
    Minki was
halfway down the stairs when she suddenly gripped the balustrade in fright. She
stopped halfway between two steps. Her left foot suspended in mid-air. The
knuckles of her right hand were white as she tightly gripped the wood of the
handrail. She was staring down at her father.
    ‘Daddy?’
    A cold
numbness washed over her. She remained motionless frozen with alarm.
    ‘Daddy?’
    Fear had
driven the pitch of Minki’s voice up half an octave. The blood had drained from
her face. From deep within herself, she gathered every last strand of willpower
and tore free from the balustrade. Minki didn’t dare take her eyes off her
father. She inched forward. Her left foot landed on the next step with a
bone-jarring thud that made her head quiver. Still she didn’t take her eyes off
the man standing beneath her.
    Minki’s father
was standing stiff and motionless facing the naked wall. His face was right up
against its smooth white surface, his nose a mere inch away. His arms were extended
stiffly along his sides as if he were standing to attention. From this angle,
Minki could see that his eyes were open.
    ‘Daddy?’
    A tense insistence
underlined Minki’s voice. She slowly crept down the stairs towards her father.
    He remained
silent immobile. Frozen. Just staring at the wall. Saying nothing. Doing nothing.
Just staring.
    Minki reached
the bottom of the staircase. Her limbs atrophied with fear but she kept on
moving.
    ‘Daddy? Please
... daddy.’ Her voice was cracked with