CHAPTER THREE

      ALEX WAS ON A BUS headed for the North Shore!

      “Do you think he really found Dad?” Emma’s voice was a pin bursting the bubble of panic that held Frannie motionless.

      “No.” She reached for the phone and dialed 911. When she was told her son would be considered a runaway and that a police officer would be sent to her home to ask her more questions, she told the dispatcher, “No, don’t do that. I’ll find him myself.”

      “Are you mad at the police?” Emma asked, as Frannie slammed the receiver down.

      “No.”

      “You look like you’re mad.”

      “I’m not. I’m worried.

      She rubbed her fingers across her forehead. She couldn’t think. She had to think. She took several more calming breaths, then grabbed the phone book and searched for the number to the bus depot.

      She vented her frustration at the faceless person on the other end of the line. “I don’t understand how you could let a ten-year-old on the bus without an adult.”

      Frannie didn’t like the answer she received. Alex hadn’t been alone. A woman had purchased the ticket for him, saying he was going to visit his father in Grand Marais and would be met at the bus stop there.

      What woman would buy a bus ticket for a ten-year-old boy? Frannie asked herself, as panic again bubbled up in her throat. She closed her eyes momentarily and tried not to think the worst. Alex easily could have cried a bucket of tears and concocted a story that would have had any compassionate woman offering to buy him a ticket.

      Frannie couldn’t waste time wondering about what had already happened. Her son was on a bus headed for a small town in search of his father. She needed to be calm and she needed to be rational.

      She turned to Emma and said, “We need to go find Alex, so I want you to gather a few things for Luke to play with in the car…some books, his blanky,” she said as she mentally made a list of what she needed to bring along.

      With her usual systematic approach, she loaded the car. Bottled water, juice boxes, munchies for the kids, change of clothes for Luke in case he had an accident. Luke was toilet trained most of the time, but whenever she least expected it, an accident occurred.

      Frannie couldn’t believe how long it took to pack up two kids and get on the road. By the time her station wagon pulled out of the drive, it was midafternoon, which meant they would be lucky to reach the North Shore before evening.

      Once they found Alex, they’d have to eat dinner. And by the time they made the journey home again, they’d be fortunate to get to bed by midnight. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, trying not to think about anything but staying calm and finding Alex.

      Never had the drive from Minneapolis to Duluth seemed so long. Although Emma read stories and kept Luke entertained for most of the journey, three hours was a long time for any child to spend in the car. Even Emma found it difficult to be still and asked if they could take a break.

      “There’s a park down there. Can we go down by the water?” she asked as their journey took them past the harbor.

      “You know we can’t stop.”

      “But we’ve been in the car forever. And it looks like it’s really fun.” She gazed longingly out the window toward Canal Park.

      “I’ll bring you and your brothers back for a visit some other time. Right now we need to get to Grand Marais.”

      “Oh, look! That bridge is going up so the boat can get through.” She sighed. “Can’t we stop for just a few minutes?”

      Frannie ignored her and continued following the highway along the shoreline of Lake Superior. It being the height of tourist season, traffic moved slowly as motor homes and pickup trucks pulling trailers leisurely made their way to recreational parks.

      She glanced at her watch. It was almost six. The bus should have arrived in Grand Marais by now. She wondered where Alex was and what he was doing.

      Frannie’s heart rate increased. What if she couldn’t find him? What if Dennis Harper was in the small resort town? What if Alex had found him and he—She pushed such thoughts from her mind. She needed to keep a clear head if she was going to find Alex. She couldn’t allow what-if’s to distract her.

      Finally she saw the green road sign: Grand Marais. Frannie’s adrenaline kicked into a higher gear. As she drove into the business district, she kept one eye on the road, the other on the sidewalks in search of her son.

      It only took a few minutes to locate the bus stop. When she saw no sign of Alex, she parked her car, then grabbed Luke by the hand and ordered Emma to stick close by.

      “I’m looking for my son. He’s ten, dark hair, a couple of inches shorter than I am, wearing a pair of jeans and a blue shirt,” she would say to each of the shopkeepers she met. Each gave her the same answer. No one had seen him.

      “When are we going to eat? I’m hungry,” Emma asked as they approached a diner. The aroma of beef grilling wafted on the air, and Luke echoed his sister. “I want to eat, Mommy.”

      Frannie pulled open the door to the diner and motioned for Emma to step inside. Her daughter hadn’t taken but a couple of steps when she said, “He’s in here!”

      Relief washed over Frannie at the sight of her son sitting on a stool at the lunch counter. In front of him was a half-eaten hamburger and a plate of French fries, and he held a fountain glass in his hand. Seeing his mother, his eyes widened. He slammed the glass down on the counter.

      “Mom!”

      Hours of pent-up emotion came spilling out. Instead of throwing her arms around him and telling him how relieved she was that he was safe, she scolded him. “Alexander Harper, what do you think you’re doing? Do you know how worried I’ve been about you?” It was only as she noticed the heads turned in her direction that she realized how loud her voice was.

      “You’re in big trouble,” Emma said, taking the stool next to his and grabbing a French fry from his plate. “You’re gonna get grounded.”

      Seeing the food in front of Alex, Luke squirmed and wriggled, trying to be free of Frannie’s arms. “I’m hungry!” he cried, fingers clawing the air in hopes of reaching Alex’s fries.

      “Can I have a hamburger?” Emma asked.

      Frannie knew she needed to feed her children. She looked around the small diner for a place for them all to sit.

      The waitress behind the counter, a teenage girl wearing a red chef’s apron over her jeans and T-shirt, said, “Why don’t you take that table next to the window?” She gestured to a booth directly behind Frannie. Alex didn’t look as if he wanted to leave his spot at the counter, but the young girl picked up his plate, saying, “Come on, big fella.