The Apple of My Eye

Sheryl held Charles' foot in her hands, gently massaging it while she kept talking to him. Although Charles did not respond to her, she spoke to him as if he was awake and relaxing with his eyes closed. "Charles, I know you miss the kids very much. They miss you too. They ask me all the time when you will come to see them. I lie to them that you are on a business trip. When you come back from the trip, you will bring them a lot of presents. Charles, are you listening to me? Let's buy gifts for them when you wake up. Okay?" Sheryl moved her hands slowly up Charles' leg, applying slow and soft pressure as she massaged him. She wanted to press a little further, but since there was a monitor there, she stopped and continued to press on the other leg.

Sheryl's eyes were fixed on her hands, and how they moved, to give a relaxing massage to Charles' legs. As a result, she was completely oblivious about Charles' instinctive reaction.

By the time, Sheryl reached the other foot, Charles' breath became a little heavier.

Sheryl's hands started moving up slowly, pressing softly and moving back and forth around his calf muscles. Drops of sweat started appearing on Charles' forehead. Sheryl did not take notice of that. She just focused on massaging. And she kept talking. She told him about Melissa and the kids, and many other things related to their family. Then all of a sudden, her monologue was interrupted as her mobile phone started ringing inside her pocket.

She took out the phone from her pocket immediately and, tapping on it, muted the sound. She glanced over at Charles' face to check if the sound of her phone disturbed him. Every time she entered the ward, she took particular care to switch the phone off to make sure not to disturb Charles' rest.

Sheryl was rather startled to get a call at this time. She looked at the screen and found...

it was a call from Melissa.

"Mom, what's up?" Sheryl asked in a suppressed voice, cautious not to make noise in the ICU.

She cast a glance at Charles and found that he was resting in his undeterred and long sleep.

"Sher, Clark is missing from the kindergarten. Just now, Nancy was about to pick up the children when I received a call from the teacher saying that Clark had suddenly gone missing." Melissa's voice was trembling as she spoke over the phone.

Sheryl was dumbfounded for a moment. She couldn't believe what she had heard. How could Clark go missing?

She gathered herself and asked, "Mom, how could Clark go missing from the kindergarten? There are so many cameras and teachers there to keep him under supervision. How come they are not able to find him anywhere?"

"Nancy is checking the surveillance video with the teacher. Would you like to go there in person and have a look at the matter? I'm going there as well." Melissa was so scared that she could even feel her voice trembling.

Sheryl was on the verge of losing her mind. She knew that she had to rush to the kindergarten. She had no time to finish massaging Charles. She replied to Melissa promptly, "Okay, I'll be right there. Mom, take it easy. We will find him out."

After Sheryl hung up the phone, she tucked Charles in and covered his legs. Looking at the man lying quietly on the sickbed, she felt devastated. Tears started to well up again in her eyes.

"Charles, wake up! We need you, and the kids need you! How long will you keep sleeping like this? Wake up. Please!" Sheryl murmured, looking at Charles' sleeping face. Then she wiped off the tears on her face and left the room hurriedly.

However, one thing that Sheryl did not come to know was that Charles slowly opened his eyes after she turned her back at him. He had a pair of deep and sparkling eyes.

Sheryl left the hospital and rushed to Clark's kindergarten as fast as she could.

When she arrived at the gate of the kindergarten, she saw Melissa walking in holding Shirley's hand.

"Mom!" Shirley rushed to Sheryl as soon as she saw her.

"Mom, Shirley, you have both come here!" Sheryl held her daughter's hand and stroked her head as she greeted Melissa.

Melissa's face looked white as a sheet of paper. She nodded and said, "Yes, I did. I wanted to keep an eye on her. Now that Clark has gone missing, I can't afford to take a risk with your other kid. So I brought her with me."

"Let's go inside and have a look." Sheryl held Shirley's hand as the three of them walked into the kindergarten.

In the monitoring room, the principal was present with several other teachers who were looking through the CCTV footage.

Nancy came over as she saw Melissa and Sheryl. The principal apologized to them at once.

"Mrs. Xia, I am sorry. I was informed just now that Clark Lu, your child, suddenly disappeared right after he got off from the school this afternoon. We are trying to investigate where he is now."

"I see. Have you got any clue yet from the surveillance video?" Sheryl asked anxiously.

The principal looked embarrassed as he said, "Mrs. Xia, we are still playing the video back. The last time your child was seen on the screen was at fifty past three..."

"Was he alone or with someone at that time?" Sheryl asked.

The principal understood Sheryl's concern as a parent. He replied politely, "Clark went to the bathroom once, but we didn't find any video footage of him coming out of the bathroom. He has been missing since then."

"How could this be? How could a living person disappear from the bathroom of your kindergarten? Do you really want me to believe this?" Melissa was appalled. She couldn't help but question angrily.

The principal didn't know Melissa. Yet, from her anxiety and concern towards Clark, he surmised that Melissa must be related to him. Hence, he didn't dare to offend her. He replied politely, "Madame, we have just been able to view this part of the video. It took us a while to spot this footage."

"Principal, did you just say that my son went to the washroom at 3:30?" Sheryl asked abruptly.

"Yes, I am sure."

"As to all the video files shot before and after this time, are you sure that you have checked them all properly?" Sheryl asked again.

The principal was left baffled as he did not quite understand what Sheryl meant by those words.

At that time, Sheryl aptly read the principal's face and realized that she was left with no choice but to explain. "Here's the thing. I had read news about people who are capable of hacking into the computers and tamper with the surveillance video. They could even put a fake video segment to replace the real evidence. We believe that the video surveillance room is running normally, but in fact, it might have been altered deliberately by someone."

"Mrs. Lu, I don't know much about what you said. Maybe I can ask an expert to check it. But it still needs some time. My suggestion is that we should call the police as soon as possible and report about the incident." The principal thought for a while and came up with a proper suggestion.

Sheryl agreed with him. Earlier she was worried that the kindergarten would prevent the parents from calling the police for the sake of its reputation. However, now it seemed that the principal was a reasonable person and wanted to cooperate with them wholeheartedly.

"Okay, I'll just call the police." Sheryl immediately took out her phone and dialed 911.

Ten minutes later, two policemen reached the kindergarten.

Sheryl and the principal helped the police to get a detailed record. The police left after assuring them that they would follow up with the case as soon as possible.

Sheryl was anxious, but Melissa was more anxious than her. So she had to comfort Melissa first.

At the moment, the one thing that crossed her mind was that if someone could hold her tightly to give her the courage she needed. She badly needed someone to give her a shoulder to lean on. A familiar face flashed in her mind. That was the face of the person who epitomized support and security for Sheryl. But at the moment, that person was still lying on the hospital bed, unconscious.

Sheryl was on the verge of collapsing. But she knew that she had to remain strong. She held Shirley's hand and Melissa's arm and walked towards their home.