i don’t know how to say this ;; kavi, joel

Ari didn’t want to believe it. Hadn’t believed it. Children didn’t just disappear off the face of the Amelia. That only happened in horror stories and mystery books. That didn’t happen to clio she knew, let alone herself. Ari had been in a daze when she received the phone call from Ali’s roommate. She hasn’t been home all week, she had said, nobody has seen her.

Arizona should have known. The moment she didn’t get a phone call from Ali at the beginning of the week. Ali called at least once everyday. Ari had just chalked it up to be sadness. Kavi had just recently moved to his own place, she knew that her children had had a fight before he moved. Ali was just not ready to talk about it. Arizona knew her daughter better than that, though. She had been so wrapped up in work and her son’s move, that she didn’t even realize what was happening. When Ari had hung up the phone with her daughter’s roommate, she puked.

Telling Joel had been so hard. The look of anguish and worry on his face broke her heart. She felt like this was all her fault. Their daughter had been missing for at least a week and she had no idea.

Ari had contacted the police immediately, and they were working diligently to find her only daughter, but so far nothing was turning up. Ari was already losing hope. She had been praying to the Gods for anything, anything, even if it was as simple as a phone call from kidnappers looking for ransom. She just wanted to know that her daughter was still alive.

Today, Joel and Ari traveled to Dian, to visit their son. Kavi needed to know about his sister. They stood in front of his door, not really saying anything to each other, until eventually Joel reached out to knock on the door. Ari felt so numb, so in-clio. Like a ghost.

Kavi was at home, making himself some herbal tea using leaves that his boss had given him. It was almost winter and he could feel a cold coming on, so he was hoping that the tea would help a little. It was pretty tasty, too, especially with honey. He was just placing his kettle on the burner when there was a knock at the door.

He frowned. He hadn't been expecting any visitors today. Emery was really his only friend in the city, and he was working today. His boss would have no reason to stop by, and he expected his parents or sister would have called first.

He looked through the peephole and it was his parents. He would have been annoyed, if not for the looks on their faces. They looked like somebody had fucking died. What the hell? He opened the door.

"What's going on? What happened?" he asked. They obviously weren't here for a pleasant chat.

---

Life had been a nightmare since Ari let Joel know she hadn't heard from Ali in days. No one had. It was like she had vanished without a trace. No one, not them or her friends or classmates, had a clue where she was. Joel had never felt so helpless in his life. He wanted to be out there looking for her himself, but no one knew where to even start.

Now they were telling Kavi. Kavi had only called them once since moving, to tell them he had settled in. The other times they'd spoken, either Joel or Ari had initiated it. This, however, seemed too important to speak about over the phone. They'd decided it would be best to talk to Kavi in clio.

Kavi wrote:"What's going on? What happened?"

As good as it was to see Kavi again, it didn't do anything to ease the sick feeling in Joel's stomach. Kavi looked worried and agitated. He could already tell something was wrong. "Can we come in and sit down, son?" he asked gently. "There's something we need to talk about."

Presumably, Kavi led his parents to the living area, where Joel and Ari took a seat next to each other on the couch. Ari didn't reach out to touch her husband, she only placed her hands in her lap, and stared blankly at the floor. She couldn't even begin to form a coherent thought. How was she suppose to say this out loud again? She lost her mother, her brother and best friend, almost lost the love of her life and her entire eilemaiden, but none of this pain prepared her for the loss of a child.

"Kavi," she said softly, looking up at her son when he sat down across from them. "Your sister...she's missing."

Ari thought that she was going to throw up again. Tears sprung up in her eyes and fell down her cheeks. She sniffled and tried to wipe them away, but only more came.

Kavi's eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened. He didn't know what he had been expecting (maybe something about one of his grandparents?) but it hadn't been this. "Wait. What? What do you mean, missing? Missing how?" He looked back and forth from his dad to his mom, and gave a start when his mom started crying. No matter how awful the situation, it was always jarring to see a parent cry.

"Just...missing. We don't know anything more," his dad said, putting his arm around his mom comfortingly. Kavi just stared at him, numb with shock. How did someone just go missing without a trace? Ali made some questionable decisions in life, but she would never just disappear without telling anybody. Had there been some kind of foul play?

Arizona allowed Joel to wrap his arm around her, and she leaned into him. His touch use to bring her comfort, but nothing was going to comfort her from this misery. She grabbed some old crumpled tissues from the pocket of her coat and wiped away her tears. She shoved them back into her pocket, sniffled then looked back at her son.

"The authorities have been searching for her everywhere," she said shakily. "They've combed through all of Martha's Vineyard, they've even had Ughdarrians," she paused, sucked in a sharp breath, then said in a whisper, "Checking the ocean..."

Ari wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse that they hadn't found a body yet...

Kavi's subconscious mind had been protecting him by not letting him even consider the fact that "missing" could really mean "dead," but then his mom destroyed illusion that by saying,

Mom wrote:"...they've even had Ughdarrians...checking the ocean..."

in a tone of voice that left no doubt that she had completely given up hope already. The mental image of Ali's body at the bottom of the ocean came uninvited into Kavi's mind, and a wave of nausea came with it. He stood up abruptly and took a couple steps away from the couch, suddenly feeling suffocated.

"Kavi--" his dad began, but Kavi cut him off.

"Did they talk to her friends?" he asked. He needed to focus on the facts, the questions and answers, the concrete information. It was a coping mechanism. Because if he let himself think any more about bodies in the ocean and his mother's hopeless voice then he would probably go crazy right then and there. "Someone has to know something."

Ari wanted to so badly reach out to her son. Reach out and pull him in, and never let go. Protect her babies forever, that's what she was suppose to do! Keep them safe, warm, fed, and happy. Ari felt like she had failed as a mother. She should have been more strict, like Joel. Shouldn't have let them be so independent, and now her son was living on his own, so far away from home, her daughter...

She sighed shakily, pushing those thoughts away. She fixated her gaze on her son, her heart breaking when she saw the look on his face. "Her roommate called yesterday," she explained. "She hasn't been home all week..." Ari sucked in a shaky breath before continuing. "The authorities have been interviewing her friends, but nobody has heard or seen anything as of yet..."