in torrents

When they hadn't heard from Anna in over two weeks, Kit looked at her schedule, trying to find some way of putting things off, of getting time to do something. There was just no way she could take off right now. She was used to asking the impossible--and getting it. But that was at work, and definitely not at home. When Richard offered to go search for Anna, she agreed that that was probably the best course of action.

After he left though, the worries still came pounding in to her lungs in biting torrents. She called Richard nearly every hour on the hour. "Why are you still at work if all you can do is call me?" he asked her finally. "We're doing everything we can. There is just no news, no way of explaining what happened. There are no leads. I'll call the moment anything turns up."

" I know that. It's just that I can't wait for any news. I have to know what is going on!" She had never snapped at anyone like this before--even in the privacy of her cherry wood walled office.

"Well, pull yourself together. One of us has to be sane. For the family. For the kids." Richard had never pleaded until now.

She knew he was right. She told herself that she stayed behind because she couldn't aford to leave--if she took a day off, her place in the firm would be history. Then where would the money come from for the kid's college, their retirement, the long-term care policies for Sophie and Yuki? Where would the funds be for the Search for Anna Mizunami Command Center, the posters, the mailings, the rest of their only hopes for finding Anna? Besides, it would set an incredibly horrid precedent for the firm. She set this down in a lined note and kept it in the front of her black leather appointment book

She was the first woman in the partnership--coming on board as a junior lawyer right out of law school and three weeks pregnant. She went to work early and finished late, never in the 19 years making family an excuse for skipping out. Actually, that was why they still lived in her mother's house, in her grandmother's house. They had agreed to move in when Kit found herself. Richard had agreed that it was best to simply build an addition to the house--the son-in-law extension, he called it. Kit only took two weeks off for the maternity, and even handled some last minute details over the phone. Sophie had taken over everything, caring for Yuki and the girls with a calm, no nonsense attitude. Kit had never really thought about the girls--they were a given part of her life, a loving thing to come home too, a picture to have discretely on the corner of her desk.

Until now, the work swept every other concern away, leaving only notes and promises in its path. Only now with the impending permanence of loss did she fully grasp what had been taken.

the water / falls / in torrents / as if it were the only / force that mattered / sweeping / everything / from its path

the word is / the sound / of water / dripping from/ ancient symbols / tiny particles / of merging / realities


Follow us all: Amy/Anna, Sophie/Yuki, Kit/Richard, minor characters or sift through water leavings and river journeys.