Cassandra Andresky

The Little Black Book

Penelope Rose was just like any other twenty-something. She had an average job at MedTekk, answering phone calls about insurance coverage. She had a few close friends that she would hang out with on the weekends. The oddest thing about her was her long-lost father, who disappeared one night to never return. She sat with her headset on at MedTekk, typing up a work-up of coverage from a patient who had just called. It was reaching 2pm. She flipped her long chestnut braid over her thin shoulder as she placed her hand on a picture of her father that was pinned to her wall. He was of average height with shaggy brown hair, a very trimmed beard and was always smiling his crooked smile, as if he was always up to something exciting. Penelope's heart seized at the thought of him. He had vanished when she was eight years old, and she never learned if he had actually run off or something more sinister happened to him. She still had all these questions racing through her head. Had he left her on purpose? Where was he now? Did he have another family? She sighed. All that was behind her now, and she should move on, but it's hard when you don't get closure. She grew up in the foster care system until she was eighteen, then moved into her own apartment. She sat in her cubicle, staring at a bright blue screen in a daze thinking back on the last time she had seen her father, when the phone rang. Now, this was typical for her job, but this particular phone call was not.