The writing prompt for this piece was – Deadlines
The Meet Up
It was six o’clock at night. We were supposed to meet here at 5:30. Where was she? I knew I was told never to phone her, but what else could I do? I pulled out my phone, dialed her cell, and waited. There was nothing—no ringing, no pick-up, and no voice on the other end. It was a dead line.
Could something be wrong with my phone? I tried calling my home phone, and it rang. I got my answering machine, so my cellphone obviously worked.
It was now 6:30. Something was definitely wrong. But what to do? She’d think I had abandoned her if I left here and she came. If I stayed, I wouldn’t be able to prevent anything that might be happening to her.
I needed help. I couldn’t call her house phone. He would get suspicious, and the last thing either of us wanted was for him to find out about us.
I could try one of my friends, but who could I trust? My friends weren’t known for keeping secrets. I don’t believe that she confided in any of hers. Besides, I’m not even sure she had any friends.
I decided to leave a note where I was. I took an old receipt from my pocket and on the back of it wrote, “Where were you? Call me.” I left the last four digits of my phone number on the note. I knew she would recognize the four digits. I left it sticking out from a rock off to the side of the pavement. I needed her to notice the note was from me, so I also left an empty wrapper from a Wriggley’s Doublemint chewing gum pack, which she knew I always carried with me.
I chose to head toward her house. I had no plan, but I thought that by meandering by her home, I might discover if something was amiss. And it was. The sign on her lawn said – For Sale, and a sticker over the front of it said SOLD. As there were no shades on the windows, I looked through the living room window, I could see that the inside of the house was stripped clean. No one lived there.
———–
I was getting too close to him, and I knew it. His feelings for me created a significant dilemma in my assignment. He wasn’t the target. His boss was. Hanley and I had set up the house as our living quarters. I had paired up with Hanley before. We were to be the volatile married couple. I was to get attached to my mark in the hopes that I could gather information on his boss.
I’ve done this plenty of times before. I wasn’t expecting him to fall for me that quickly. Sources had it that someone had figured out our plan, which would put him in jeopardy. I set up the meet with him to break up, but Hanley didn’t trust the situation. We were ordered to disappear and close down the operation. We had to scrub our plans. That meant clearing the house and disconnecting any phones he might have known about. Make him think that we never existed.
I was so close to getting the info I needed, but that’s the nature of my job. You have a deadline to accomplish your task; if you don’t meet it, you disappear. There are always other fish to catch.
———–
I was so close to her. I’m convinced she was falling in love with me. We would run away from her cruel husband, and before it got too serious, I would have been able to get the information on her organization and then disappear. This should have been an easy assignment. I’ve done it before. Someone must have gotten to her. I feel sorry for that, but that’s the nature of my job. I must go back and retrieve my note and disappear myself. I’ve got other fish to catch and deadlines to meet.
