I don't mean he's died, as far as I know he's perfectly fine, he's just not here on campus and I don't, as of this writing, know why. All three of them, Steve, Sarah, and Sean are gone. They left in the middle of the night.
Everything seemed normal with them when we went to bed--though, maybe I missed something somehow. They did make some noise at night--woke me up--but nothing that sounded like them leaving. When I first heard the sound, I thought it was sex-noises, an irregular, almost rhythmic, half-voiced sound. It was clearly coming from Steve and Sarah's room, and however sex-positive we are around here, it doesn't mean I want to hear the people in the room next to mine going at it. But within a few seconds I realized it was crying. Someone was crying hard.
June was awake next to me.
"Should one of us go over?" I asked, whispering.
"No, wait until we're asked," she whispered back. "It could be private."
But however private it might be, we kept listening, ears peeled in the dark.
A voice spoke, Steve's, but we couldn't hear his words. Sarah replied, also unintelligibly. It must have been she who was crying. Her voice, as the two spoke, rose, became wild, almost panicked, but I still couldn't make out more than the occasional word, nothing I could make sense of. The crying started up again, escalated, something went THUMP. Steve spoke, soothingly, the crying abated, silence returned. It took a long time for June and I to get back to sleep.
We woke again to pounding on the door.
"What's the matter?" I half shouted. June and I were tangled up in the covers. I felt confused, muddle-headed.
"What's happening? What time is it?" asked June at the same time.
"It's almost six," the voice, I realized, was Mason's. "Steve is missing. Steve and Sarah and Sean are missing. Their door was open, I looked in, they're not there. Do you have any idea where they went?"
His panic was contagious, but I couldn't see the reason for it.
“Maybe they went for a walk, or went to the bathroom?” I
suggested.
“Went for a walk before dawn with a newborn? They’re not in the
bathroom, I’ve just been there.”
“You have a point.”
June and I got up. She started fumbling into her clothes and I went
to the door.
“Why me?” I asked. “What do you want me to do?” I wasn’t
complaining, I just didn’t see how I fit in to the situation.
“I don’t know,” he answered, “your door is right here and
you’re a mastery candidate.”
I guess he figured I knew what to do. And I kind of did.
“Ok, you go to zazen, I’ll handle it.”
“Ok, thank you,” and he ran off.
I went downstairs, into the still-dark office, and found a phone
list. I used it to call Waverly, who is the new security head now
that Joe has retired. The security head is on call, and therefore
wouldn’t mind being woken up before dawn. I heard a sleepy voice on
the phone and explained the problem. A few seconds went by while she
woke up more fully.
“You’re right to ask,” she assured me. “But in this case
everything’s ok. They left campus last night, Allen’s with them,
there’ll an announcement at breakfast.”
Ok, then.
But at breakfast, Karen’s announcement (she’s the current head of
the masters’ group) was only that the Kellys had left campus
temporarily because of a family emergency, that she wouldn’t give
details out of privacy concerns, but that personal friends of theirs
could call Steve on his cell phone and ask him. Sharon had the
number.
Sounds innocuous enough, but nothing that causes the head of the
masters’ group to make an announcement at breakfast is ever
good. And I can’t get Steve to answer. His phone is going straight
to voicemail.
Sounds trivial, and it’s honestly not my primary concern, but I
can’t help thinking that he’s supposed to be my student, and he
isn’t here, so how am I supposed to learn to be his teacher?
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