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had the cat been staring at her like that?
    She kissed Lizzie and gently pushed the cat off her. She glanced at the clock—still early enough to make Lizzie a good breakfast before she went off to preschool.
    Standing in her mother’s kitchen, scrambling eggs, Vera tried not to panic. She also tried not to hold this disappearance of Beatrice’s against her. Certainly there was a logical explanation. As she poured the eggs into the cast iron skillet, a crashing noise erupted behind her and she turned to see Junie Bee splayed on the floor with a number of refrigerator magnets and papers. Vera picked it all up and set everything on the counter, not willing to give up her meditative stance in front of the scrambling eggs.
    After Vera dropped Lizzie off at preschool and went to her dance studio, her cell phone rang.
    â€œHey Vera,” Annie said. “I was wondering if you had any luck with the airlines.”
    â€œI tried calling them back today,” Vera said. “But I couldn’t get past the recording.”
    â€œSave your breath,” Annie said. “I found out that they won’t give flight information anymore unless it’s a family emergency or if it’s a cop or lawyer that needs to know. Sometimes even they need a court order.”
    Vera sighed. “Where could they be? And should I be worried? I mean, I go back and forth between being worried and being seriously annoyed with my mother. Why would she be back in the States and not come back to her home?”
    â€œI’m worried, too,” Annie said. “It doesn’t seem like her at all. Unless she’s up to something.”
    â€œSomething like what?” Vera said, after hesitating.
    â€œSomething big, though I have no idea what.”
    â€œI keep thinking about that older couple in the papers a few years ago, you know the one? They decided to drive off a cliff together because they’d had enough and wanted to be together forever,” Vera said. “You know, that band Fastball released a song about another couple like that. Remember? What was it called? ‘The Way,’ that’s it. I read an interview that the band came up with the idea for the song after reading about the disappearance of an older married couple who left home to go to a festival. They were discovered two weeks later, dead, at the bottom of a ravine hundreds of miles away from where they were supposed to be.” She took a deep breath.
    Annie laughed. “I don’t see your mother as being ready to shuffle off anytime soon, do you? Nor do I see them both being confused like that, do you?”
    â€œNo, but something must have happened in France. What if Jon’s doctor told him he only had a few months to live or something?”
    â€œCalm down, Vera,” Annie said. “I’m sure it’s all going to be revealed soon.”
    But even as Vera hung up the phone, she wasn’t so sure that her mother wasn’t in trouble somewhere, needing help.
    She glanced over at the calendar—tomorrow was the date Beatrice and Jon were scheduled to arrive home. At least officially. She was suddenly struck with an idea. She had all of her mother’s flight information—why didn’t she call and pretend to be her to check on the flight in an effort to track her steps? Maybe the airlines could tell her something useful.
    Vera picked up her cell phone and dialed the number of the airline. She pressed this button, then the next, prompted by the recording. Then it asked for her confirmation number, which was on the itinerary stuck to the fridge. Feeling very efficient and impressed with herself, she dialed in the number.
    â€œThat number is not valid,” came the recorded voice. “Try again, or dial zero for assistance.”
    Vera tried again and received the same recording. She pressed zero and was placed on hold with some strange music playing in her ear.
    â€œFlight cancellations,” a