Five Days in Summer

try to relax if you can.”
    As she disappeared around the corner, her words resonated: try to relax if you can . How? It was hard enough after a hard day at work, or a few hours with the kids when they were fighting. But how do you relax when someone you love, someone whose existence spills meaning into every corner of yours, someone cleaved to your identity, has vanished? And now you’re told she’s being held by a maniac; and then you find out this maniac wants to carve up your babies. But he’ll return your wife! Yes. He’ll return her a shell. And you know your life is over. It’s over. Everything you’ve shared, and planned, is gone.
    Except the children. He still had his children.
    Chief Kaminer had promised him that the “game”now was about waiting out time, finishing the five days of slow torture, psyching out the psycho. Waiting for the monster to either lead them to his hiding place or try to steal one of his sons. It didn’t feel like much of a game, this business of their lives shattering. So they had until Friday. Then?
    Will realized he was standing in the middle of the hall, in a shaft of his own silence, with his eyes squeezed shut and his fists tight in his pockets. He looked around as the blue walls of the pediatric ward drained into the brittle gray of his thoughts. When he remembered that his three children were yards away from him, the anxiety that had become his lifeblood triggered awareness like a morning jolt of caffeine. They needed him. They would need him more than ever from now on.
    Just as Dr. Lao had promised, a security guard was now posted outside Maxi’s room, and she was still fast asleep. Sarah and the boys were standing by the window, looking out. There was such a quietness to them that it seemed as if they were listening to something, or to nothing, or maybe just taking in the reprieve offered by a moment of simple silence.
    Will kissed Maxi on her forehead and whispered in her ear: “I love you, sweetie. See you later.”
    Sarah, David and Sam stopped by the crib and blew her kisses. Then, without speaking, they filed past the guard and out of the hospital. The boys drove back to the house with Will, who followed Sarah in her own car.
    Charlie and Val were not at the house when they got back. As soon as they were parked and out of the car, Will pulled out his cell phone. He had to find out what was going on. Sarah and the boys meanwhile stopped by the front garden and she began what theyhad all heard before; it was what Emily called her mother’s “tour,” when she recited both the Latin and common names of each plant. It was a nervous twitch of Sarah’s and for the first time Will appreciated it; anything to rivet the boys to something small and usual, away from the larger picture. The trees, not the forest, today just one tree.
    Will took the opportunity to go into the house alone. He tried to speed-dial Charlie and immediately discovered his cell phone battery was dead. Only now did it occur to him that he hadn’t charged it in days. He shoved it in his pocket and hurried to the bedroom he shared with Emily. Her address book was on the dresser, on top of the novel she was in the middle of reading.
    As soon as he opened the red leather cover, he smelled her: lilacs. He hadn’t seen her for three days and knew he may never see her again. The address book was filled with her writing, different colors, pen and pencil, and he brought it to his face and breathed in her scent. Then he put it down on the bed and with shaking fingers found the phone number.
    Charlie’s voice mail answered his cell phone, and so did Val’s. At their home, the answering machine picked up. Will left messages everywhere, then hung up the bedroom phone and went upstairs; maybe they had left a message here.
    The answering machine’s red light was blinking the number one. He pressed PLAY and listened to Charlie’s voice, clipped, urgent.
    “Listen, Will, we had to turn back. The doctor thinks Val’s in labor. He wants her in the hospital. If she’s in labor, he needs to stop it if he can. It’s too soon, Will. It’s two and a half months early. I’m sorry. I’m sorry . She’s been incredibly upset since you called.I’m going now. If Val’s okay she says I should come back alone. I will. I’ll call you—”
    The machine cut him off.
    Will’s stomach cascaded. He went back down to the bedroom, got Emily’s address book and started flipping through the pages. The names of