I Missed My Plane, Helped a Homeless Mother — What Happened After I Gave Her My Key Still Haunts Me
The office met her with the usual organized bustle. The receptionist reported on calls. Elias Thorne, her trusted chief of staff for over a decade, brought a folder of documents for the upcoming meeting. Althea immersed herself in work, using the figures and contracts as a shield against the memory of last night’s quarrel.
It was around two in the afternoon when a call from Martha flashed on her phone. Althea frowned. Martha, their longtime housekeeper, usually didn’t disturb her over trifles during business hours.
«Yes, listening,» she answered, continuing to scan a complex clause in a contract.
«Ms. Vance!» Martha’s voice sounded alarmed, even frightened. «Mrs. Beatrice is missing!»
Althea froze, her pen hovering over the paper. She didn’t immediately comprehend what she heard. «How do you mean, missing?» Her heart gave an unpleasant, hard lurch.
«I can’t find her anywhere,» Martha spoke quickly, incoherently, panic rising in her voice. «She wasn’t in the kitchen in the morning. I thought she was still sleeping, but when she still hadn’t come out by ten, I went to check. The bed is made, but she’s not in the room. I searched all the rooms, the whole house, looked in the yard and the garden. I ran out to the street and called her name, but Mrs. Beatrice is nowhere.»
«This is all I need right now.» Althea stood up sharply from the desk, dropping the folder of documents. Papers scattered across the floor, but she didn’t care. «Martha, are you sure you checked everywhere? Closets, basement?»
«Absolutely everywhere. I even looked in the garage. Her phone is still lying on the nightstand in her bedroom. She didn’t take it.»
«I’ll be there soon.»
Althea ended the call and pressed the intercom button urgently. «Elias, come in immediately.»
Her assistant appeared in seconds, apparently sensing the anxiety in her voice. «Yes, Ms. Vance?»
«Elias, I have unforeseen circumstances.» Althea was already gathering items into her bag, her movements jerky. Her hands were trembling slightly. «My mother is missing. I need to handle the search immediately. Reschedule all meetings for today. I don’t care who they are with.»
«Missing? How?»
«I don’t know,» Althea cut him off sharply. «The housekeeper says she hasn’t been home since morning and her phone is still there.»
Elias Thorne saw her tense face and understood the seriousness of the situation without further explanation.
«Ms. Vance, can I help with anything? Maybe organize a search party? Or go with you?»
Althea thought for a second but shook her head. «Not yet. If I need your help, I’ll call.»
She grabbed her bag and coat and practically ran out of the office, leaving a bewildered Elias standing in the middle of the room surrounded by scattered papers.
On the drive home, Althea replayed all possible scenarios in her head, each worse than the last. Where could her mother be? Could she really have been so offended by yesterday’s words that she decided to leave? But where would she go without a phone or car?
Braking sharply at a traffic light, Althea dialed the number of Elizabeth Barnes, an old and close friend of her mother’s.
«Hello,» answered a cheerful female voice.
«Mrs. Barnes, it’s Althea. Is my mother with you by any chance?»
«No, Althea, honey. Why? Did something happen?» Worry instantly appeared in the woman’s voice.
«No, everything is fine,» Althea lied, not wanting to raise panic prematurely. «I just wondered where she went. Maybe she called you today?»
«No, dear, Beatrice and I spoke the day before yesterday. She invited me for tea next week. Is something wrong, Althea?»
«No, no, everything is good. Just a misunderstanding. Thank you.»
Althea disconnected and dialed the next number. Valentina, another friend, also knew nothing. Moreover, she was surprised by the call, mentioning Beatrice had planned to work in her greenhouse today.
Suddenly, it hit her. The cemetery. Her mother often went there, especially when she was upset or overwhelmed and wanted to be in silence. Maybe after yesterday’s brutal fight, she went to her husband’s grave seeking solace.
Althea turned the car around aggressively and headed toward the city outskirts. The drive to the cemetery took twenty minutes, which felt like an eternity. Anxious thoughts swarmed in her head. What if Mama felt unwell on the way? What if something happened to her? She was seventy-nine years old.
I shouldn’t have spoken to her like that yesterday, Althea thought bitterly, gripping the steering wheel. I shouldn’t have snapped. She has a heart condition. I should have just swallowed it like always.
The cemetery met her with solemn silence and the rustle of autumn leaves on the paths. Althea practically ran along the familiar route to her father’s grave. Her heels clicked loudly on the asphalt, her breathing ragged.
The grave was well kept. Fresh flowers lay on the black marble slab. Apparently, her mother had visited very recently, perhaps even this morning, but no one was there now.
Althea sank onto the cold stone bench next to the grave, exhausted. Tears rolled down her cheeks on their own.
«Daddy, how could she do this?» she whispered, looking at her father’s stern photo on the monument. «Where could Mama have gone? I didn’t mean to hurt her so badly. I’m just tired. Tired of pretending everything is fine when it’s not.»
Langston Vance looked out from the photo, calm and unmoving. Althea remembered how he always knew how to soothe her with one look, how he found the right words in a difficult moment. Now, there was only silence.
«What do I do?» she asked quietly to the air.
But no answer followed, of course. She sat for a few more minutes, wiped her tears fiercely, and stood up. She needed to act, not sit and cry.
On the way home, Althea began calling hospitals. She was shaking at the thought that her mother might have been found unconscious on the street or had a heart attack.
«Good afternoon. Did you have any elderly women admitted today, approximately 79 years old? No ID perhaps? Her name is Beatrice Vance.»
«One minute, let me check… No, ma’am, we don’t have such a patient listed.»
She called four major hospitals. No results. Then Althea drove to the nearest police precinct. The desk sergeant met her without enthusiasm, clearly busy with his own piles of paperwork.
«I want to report a missing person,» Althea said firmly, trying to keep her voice steady.
«Have a seat. When did the person go missing? This morning? Or possibly during the night? You don’t know for sure?» The officer looked up at her skeptically.
«This morning. I understand that legally you might wait 24 hours, but she is 79,» Althea’s voice trembled slightly. «She has heart problems. She left without her phone.»
«All right, let’s file a report.» The officer sighed and took out a form. «Name, age of the missing person.»
«Beatrice Vance, 79 years old.»
«Description?»
«Well-groomed black woman,» Althea tried to recall all details, realizing she hadn’t really looked at her mother this morning. «Average height, about five foot five. Gray hair, usually wears it in a bun. Brown eyes, wears reading glasses.»
«What was she wearing when she left?»
«I… I don’t know. I left early in the morning for work, I didn’t see her.»
«Does she have memory problems? A tendency to wander? Dementia?»
«No.» Althea shook her head vigorously. «No, absolutely no memory problems. She was always of sound mind. Sharp as a tack.»
«Maybe there was a conflict? A reason why she might have left voluntarily?»
Althea fell silent. Yesterday’s fight floated up in memory in full, ugly color.
«We had a disagreement last night,» she admitted reluctantly. «But that’s no reason to just disappear into thin air.»
«I see.» The officer wrote something down. «Leave your contact information. We will look into it, circulate the description. But usually in such cases, people return on their own after cooling off. Perhaps your mother just wants to teach you a lesson.»
«Teach me a lesson?» Althea felt anger boiling inside. «She is 79, Officer, not 17.»
«Nevertheless, it happens more often than you think,» the officer replied calmly. «Go home, wait there in case she returns. If she doesn’t appear in 24 hours, we will activate a wider search protocol.»
Althea left the precinct feeling devastated and utterly helpless. She returned home, where a worried Martha had already turned on all the lights in the house, as if bright light could help act as a beacon to bring the missing mistress back.
«Nothing?» the housekeeper asked hopefully, meeting her at the door.
«Nothing.» Althea walked into the living room and sank onto the sofa, leaving her coat on.
«Maybe she went to one of the relatives?»
«She has no close relatives left except me,» Althea answered wearily. «Martha, think carefully. Did you notice anything strange in her behavior lately? Anything at all?»
«No, Ms. Vance. Mrs. Beatrice was as usual. True, the last few days she seemed a bit thoughtful, maybe a little sad, but I didn’t attach any importance to it. I thought it was just the autumn weather.»
Althea took out her phone and started calling hospitals again, adding morgues and urgent care centers to the list. With every negative answer, the cold grip of panic grew tighter around her heart.
In the evening, Elias called from the office.
«Ms. Vance, how are things? Has your mother been found?»
«No.» Althea’s voice sounded hollow, foreign to her own ears. «Elias, cancel all my meetings for tomorrow too. I can’t think about work when I don’t know where my mother is.»
«Of course. I understand. Maybe… maybe we should organize a public announcement? Or hire private detectives?»
«Detectives? Yes, that’s a good thought. I should have thought of that earlier. I’ll handle that first thing in the morning.»
Althea didn’t sleep all night. She sat in the armchair in the living room, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the silent phone, hoping it would ring, that her mother’s number would appear and she would say everything was fine, that she just wanted to be alone for a while. But the phone remained silent.
The same torturous thoughts spun in her head in an endless loop. What if I never see her again? What if the last words we ever said to each other were full of anger and resentment? Althea closed her eyes, and tears flowed down her cheeks again. For the first time in many, many years, she felt completely out of control. She could command a large company, close complex deals, solve impossible problems, but how to find a person who simply vanished?
