Chapter Two

It was six o’clock when she woke up the next morning. She stood up and went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and have her bath.

Minutes later, she was dressed in a short-sleeved shirt, a wool sweater she had inherited from her mother, and a form fitted jeans.

She went into the living room, where she had left Brad last night, but he wasn’t there anymore.

She checked the kitchen, back room, and the storage room, but he wasn’t there. She went outside to check the surrounding, but he still wasn’t there.

Sidney began to wonder if he had left. She didn't know if that was possible but she knew that anything could happen. What was to be expected from someone she knew nothing about anyway? 

Why would he leave just like that?

Maybe he wasn’t who he claimed to be, and he slipped away in the night before she could find out.

Maybe he was a thief, and he had stolen something from her. Was that even possible? People lie about who they are all the time. 

She ran back into the cabin to check if something was missing, but everything was in its place.

She had been wrong! She had been wrong about him then. He was nothing she thought that he was. 

Everything was there, normal, and untouched. 

Where could he be then? 

Bradley Humphrey, if that was even his name, was just a stranger she had helped out of sympathy and a ‘no other choice', and he had been a good company last night, but that doesn’t mean he was who he claimed to be. 

Sidney looked outside her porch again and noticed that the bear wasn’t there anymore. The man was missing, and the bear was also missing. 

Could he have gone into the woods, perhaps to dispose of the bear, or he had gone to his car?

What was going on? 

She glanced at her wristwatch, it was seven thirty, which meant that he was missing for one and half hours.

Her brain told her it wasn’t time for her to panic. No doubt there would be a perfect explanation for his disappearance. 

She continued to walk around, wondering how long a person had to be missing before she could call the cops.

Probably two hours, which meant that there was nothing else she could do but wait, although, she hated to wait. 

Sidney sure wouldn’t just wait around doing nothing so she continued searching. She walked to the east side of the cabin, and in a far distance, she could see Bradley coming towards the cabin. “Brad.” She called out.

Sidney looked beyond him as he stepped out of the woods.

He was holding a small duffel bag and a laptop in one hand, and her father's tool box in the other.

“Good morning,” Brad began when they walked back to the front porch. “I used your phone this morning to call a mechanic company, and informed them of the problem. They said they couldn’t get here until tomorrow for some reasons, so I decided to get it out of the mess myself.” He sat on one of the chairs on the front porch. “I couldn’t fix it, so I’m stuck here.” He said.

Sidney smiled!

To think she had thought he was some thief, or that he was in danger was a shame. She was glad he wasn’t.

“Aw, damn.” She propped her hand on her hip and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Brad. You don’t deserve that.” 

She didn’t know him enough to know if he deserved it or not but nobody should be put in that situation.

She went inside, and Brad stood up to follow. He made a helpless gesture with his hands. “Well, I hate to impose, but…I have to be here for another day.”

Even as she backed him, she could hear the discomfort in his voice. His embarrassed gaze shield away from her as she turned to him. “It’s alright, Brad. I need the company, anyway."

After breakfast, they talked about everything they could. He decided to tell her about his childhood, how he went to high school in London, Manchester, and other places due to his father’s moving before he started his own company. 

“What did you participate in, in high school? What house were you in college?” she asked as she wondered who he was when he was in school.

A quarterback, maybe. 

“None. I wasn’t really social back in high school, and I never went in for that much fraternity stuff.”

She grinned.

“So you just went to school normally?” she asked.

“And what do you consider normal?” he asked back. “ I went to school at seven, go for a basketball game at five in the evening, our driver picks me up at seven, and I have dinner at seven thirty. Then, I do my homework till bedtime. That’s what I consider normal.”

Sidney widened her eyes in surprise. “Wow. So you never had time for parties?” she asked.

“Nope,” he said simply. "Not at all."

They shared a laugh and both of them leaned back in their chair, with the serenity of the moment making them glad.

It had been a long time since he was this relaxed. Being here with her made him so relaxed.

It was as if they had known each other for the whole of their lives. Being here together, even though they were complete strangers had helped in one way or the other. Venting to a complete stranger about your childhood and life is another level of fun and peace.

The phone rang and interrupted the moment. Sidney was reluctant to pick up the phone, but she did when it rang the second time.

“Good morning, Sidney Morgan. How are you doing?” her mother, Claire Morgan Parker voice shouted into her ears.

Her mother was known to be a drama queen when it comes to her kids, but screaming her name into her ears was extreme even for her.

They weren’t as close as they were before she remarried, because they always had to argue about something. If it wasn’t about how she handled her grief, it would be the reason she needed a sibling or two, but she had accepted it when her sense finally dawn. She needed a sibling, she just couldn’t be the only kid, she needed a sister or brother, whether half or not.

Her mother remarried a year after her father died and she was happy for her.

Because of the time difference, she said.

“Good evening, mother.” She replied with an eye roll. 

She heard her mother sigh and mutter into the phone.

“Mother?” she stood up and went into the kitchen, avoiding Brad listening in on their conversation. “What’s wrong?” she asked with concern.

“Why should there be something wrong? I just called to check on my daughter.” 

“For the first time in two years? You never even reply to any of my mail.” She half shouted.

“I’m sorry, Sidney. I’ve been so busy lately, and your brother has been a handful. He is just as stubborn as you are.” 

Sidney didn’t reply. She wasn’t sure if she should be angry or glad that her mother had called.

She was not even sure she could say that Adam was her brother by all standards. They only met once, and that was on his fifth birthday.

“Okay, mother.” She managed to say. 

“Sidney, I wanted to tell you that…I moved to Paris this summer.”

Paris, really?

When did she move to Canada? A year ago? Two years? And now she was in Paris?

That was what her mother liked best though. Touring around the world with the pretense of not 'liking it here' speech. 

“How nice for you.” She said, hiding the sarcasm in her tone as hard as she could, and her mother didn’t notice.

“When are you going back to Queensbury?”

“Monday, at the latest.” She replied. At least, now she knew her mother always got her email, she just wouldn’t reply

“Okay, darling. When you arrive there, just call me.” 

“Alright, mother.”

“Bye, bye.”

“Yeah, bye mother.” She said and dropped the call. She placed the phone on the kitchen counter. 

She realized that she hadn’t been exactly quiet with the call with her mother.

She slammed her feet against the cabinet drawer in frustration. Why would her mother even call her here? She had always told her never to call her when she was in Bradford, but she never listen to anyone. She hated the fact that her calls might taint her image of the cabin.

She couldn’t think of her mother married to another man when she was in her father’s cabin.

It was her father’s haven and taking her mother’s calls there felt like it was some kind of betrayal. She didnt really like to do that here.  

Back in the sitting room, Brad noticed that Sidney wasn’t really pleased with her mother’s call, or was that his imagination? He heard the end of their conversation and the way she had said her goodbye. Most people he knew always end a call with their mother with some “take care of yourself.” And, “I love you.” 

As he shook off the thought, he heard the kitchen door slam, and she came into view a few seconds later. 

“That was my mother.” She offered with a sigh as she sat down next to him.

The leather of the couch she sat on embraced, molded to her body as if it understood her need for comfort.

Brad knew she wasn’t ready to get into details of their conversation, but he could also see that she was disturbed about the call, so he said. “I will fix dinner.” hoping that would make her smile.

“Really?” she asked, her chin drawing together in a smile.

He was right, that had made her smile. “Really.” He replied, stood, and walked towards the kitchen. 

Sidney laughed when she saw that he was serious, and contemplated on whether to follow him or not, but the latter won, so she sat back down.

By the time Brad set the table, Sidney was holding a Nora Roberts' book.

Dinner was Salisbury steak, a big chunk of meatloaf, and taco salad. 

Dinner passed on silently. 

When they were done, Brad cleared the table and cleaned it after.

He met Sidney on the front porch half an hour later.

“Thank you.” That was the first thing she said to him. 

“What for?” he asked.

“Dinner, of course. It was delicious. I couldn’t have tell, that you can cook like that.”

He smiled. “It’s fine. It was just a trick to make you smile.”

“And why would you need a trick to make me smile?” she asked curiously.

Brad thought of how best to tell her without her thinking that he was eavesdropping. “Actually, you weren’t exactly quiet with your call, so I heard your side of the conversation.” 

“Oh, that.” She said. It wasn’t an easy subject for her to discuss, so she chose to remain silent. Brad understood that as well, so he respected it.

They talked for so long after that, until the moon shone brightly in the sky and decided it was time to sleep.

They departed.

Sidney couldn’t find sleep. All her thoughts were centered on Brad. He was caring, friendly, all the things the tabloids painted him not to be. 

Yes, she googled him.

After the disappearance incidence, she had googled him, and from what she read, she had remembered reading about him on her best friend’s iPad a long time ago when she kept raving about him, and she read about how cold and difficult it was to work with him, but all that wasn’t what she saw. She was beginning to feel something for him, but what, she couldn’t tell exactly.

Tomorrow will be the last day she would see him. Maybe she could return with him to Queensbury or call her best friend Valerie, to come to drive her back home but she knew she wanted none of that.

With a frustrated growl, she held the pillow to her chest, lying on her side she rested her cheek on her right palm and she sighed.

The thought of how they met made her smile, but the thought of sleeping scared her because of the nightmares she had sometimes. She wished she could predict when the nightmare would come.

Her thought wandered back to the man outside her room, and she smiled a little. 

Maybe tonight, she could look forward to her dreams.