My mother holds back a distraught sob. ‘I’m worried, Dahlia. I know something has happened to her. I’ve got this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’ve had it for two days. Something’s wrong. I know it. I shouldn’t have let her go. Even at the airport I knew it.’
I clutch the phone hard. ‘Calm down, Mom. There’s bound to be a simple explanation. It’s probably as she said, she’s stuck in some little town where there is no Internet connectivity.’
‘What about her phone? Why has that been switched off?’ my mother fires back.
‘Maybe her battery’s run out.’
‘And she never got a chance to charge it for two days?’ she challenges. When my mother sounds more logical than me it usually means trouble.
I want to get my Mom off the phone and just think for two minutes. Obviously there is a reasonable explanation, but I can’t think with her close to hysterical in my ear. ‘Mom, can I call you back in half an hour? Let me see if I can contact Marie.’
‘I already did. Her phone is switched off too.’
I feel goose pimples start crawling up my arms. ‘What?’
‘Why do you think I’m panicking?’ my mother wails.
‘Have you tried Marie’s mother?’
‘No, I don’t have her number.’
I need to get my mom off the phone. ‘OK, I do. I’ll call her and call you back, OK?’ I coax gently.
‘Please hurry, Dahlia. I’m going out of my mind here. I’m so afraid. She’s only nineteen. She’s my baby,’ my mom whispers and starts sobbing again.
‘Mom, stop crying. Please. There’s bound to be a reasonable explanation. I’ll call you back in half an hour, or as soon as I know something.’
‘Yes, please, Dahlia. I wish you were here. Oh God! I wish I’d never let her go. I warned her never to hitchhike and she promised not to. I only let her go because she promised and she’s such a sensible girl. I don’t know what could have happened to her.’
‘Don’t worry, Mom. Like I said there’s probably a very simple explanation. I’ll call you back in half an hour, or sooner if I get some news.’
‘I’ll be waiting here,’ my mom cries tearfully.
My heart breaks to hear her little frightened voice. ‘I love you, Mom,’ I say, almost in tears myself.
‘I love you too, Dahlia.’
I end the call.
‘What’s wrong?’ Mark asks.
For a moment I don’t answer. I can’t. My mind is a big, empty blank. Then the words come to me.
‘It’s my sister.’ I look at his concerned face. ‘Daisy. She and her friend, Marie, went backpacking in Australia. My Mom hasn’t been able to contact either of them for the last two days.’ I am surprised to hear how calm my voice is. I think I don’t, or just can’t bring myself to believe anything bad has happened to my sister. Not to sunny Daisy. Who’d want to hurt her laughing, freckled sweet face?
Mark narrows his eyes. ‘She’s nineteen right?’
I nod.
‘I don’t get it. Is it really so unusual if a nineteen-year-old on a backpacking holiday doesn’t call her mother for two days?’
I press my lips together and take a deep breath. ‘Daisy promised my mom she would call every day. She knows very well if she doesn’t call my mom will worry like crazy. I’m twenty-four and I’ve been living in this country for the last year. I still have to call my mother at least twice a week or she’ll go out of her head with anxiety.’
I start biting my thumbnail, realize I’m doing it, and stop.
‘Besides, my sister is not like other girls her age. She is incredibly responsible. She always keeps her word no matter what. If she hasn’t called it is because she can’t. I’m just praying that they’ve lost their phones in the desert, they’ve had their phones stolen, or something equally innocuous.’
Mark rubs his face thoughtfully. ‘Don’t get me wrong, but she’s a teenager on holiday. Is it so unthinkable that she could have let her hair down in a place where no one knows her? In fact, it is usually teenagers who are the most responsible that feel the need to let off steam when they are far away from home. She could be trying to appear more of an adult by not reporting in to your mother daily, having fun, meeting people, partying and kicking up her heels a bit.’
I shake my head. ‘Daisy doesn’t drink. She’s into clean living, healthy food and mystical things. She does yoga and chants mantras. The reason why she wanted to go to Alice Springs in the first place was because of the Aborigines. She thinks they are special and she wanted to go on a long ‘dreaming’ walkabout with them.’
‘There you go then. She’s on a walkabout.’
If only it was as simple as that. ‘She would have told my mom then. Warned her that she would be out of touch for a few days.’