Busted

I woke up really groggy to the sound of banging pipes. I complain about them a lot, but at the same time, I'm not sure I'd wake up properly in the morning without the Room 704 Shower Racket. Maybe I should be thankful. On the bright side, all of my terrible stress from the day before seemed to have calmed itself a bit from the stupor of unconsciousness. The banging sounded oddly distant this morning. Dreamlike, almost.

I remembered that my daughter was missing, felt an uncanny sense of deja vu, and went into her bedroom. Sure enough, she was gone.

I felt a twinge of guilt for not having even tried to locate her the night before. Shame on you, Renshu. Just because she hadn't been hurt the first time she disappeared didn't mean she wasn't kidnapped or mugged or raped or murdered! I tried not to think about that. Honestly, it probably wasn't any of those. I fully believed it had to do with the scenario I had going on at work.

I took a shower, wondering if my pipes were as noisy to room 504 as 704's were to us. Then again, I was making the assumption that the Room 704 shower wasn't noisy to its inhabitants. Perhaps Ms. Lannes was just really, really deaf.

As I was toweling off, something hit me. Not literally. But I was suddenly struck with the fact that my actions today could cost me my daughter or my job. Or both. I was essentially stuck making a choice between the post office and my daughter. If I went to look for Xiu Li, then I wouldn't raise the money necessary to save the post office after all of the time and effort all of the employees had put in. And if I saved the post office, I would be ignoring the fact that my teenage daughter had mysteriously disappeared.

I really despise making last-second decisions. Truly. And yet here I was, having to make what I saw as quite the life-changing decision in less than 5 minutes. Unless I could figure a way out of it... was there a way to save the post office or Xiu Li without my presence? Maybe I could hire a manager for the day, or a detective. Nothing seemed right, though. No, I needed someone who would actually know the entire scenario.

Then I had my brilliant idea. Arjun. He was suspended. And he probably knew Xiu Li pretty well, judging from their... closeness. Maybe he could help. I paused. Was it creepy of me to track down my daughter's teenage friend? I concluded not, since so many things were at stake. I only knew his name as Arjun, though. And there was bound to be more Arjuns. So I enhanced my stalker credentials and called the school.

"Hello, how may I help you?" asked the voice on the other end.
"Yes, I'm looking for a student's home phone number--" How was I going to make this sound less creepy? "--to get in touch with his parents. My daughter and their son were recently involved in a disciplinary matter at the school, and I want to talk to them."
I felt bad for lying, but I told myself that the ends would justify the means. Besides, it was a very smooth excuse.
"What's the student's name?"
"Arjun. He's a sophomore."
"Okay, please hold just a minute, let me check the databases."
I was brilliant.
The lady came back on the line and gave me a number I could call. I was actually hoping that Arjun would pick up the phone when I called, so I wouldn't have to explain anything awkward.

First, I realized, I was going to be late to the office. I called the front lobby of the post office, and Bill picked up. "Hi, it's Renshu," I said. "I'm going to be a little bit late today; my daughter's gone missing."
"I'll keep an eye out for anything related to that," he said, "and we'll see you when you get here."

Then I dialed the number the front office had given me. It rang four times before anyone picked up, and I was getting pretty scared that no one would. But I shouldn't have worried.
A man with a deep voice answered.
"Hello?" Damn. I had to think of something, and fast.
That's when I did the most humiliating thing I've ever done.
My voice isn't exactly deep. It's not that high-pitched, either, but it's in the middle of the range. So I mustered up all my courage, ignored my sense of manhood, and spoke with the most girlish tone I could muster.
"Hi, this is Xiu Li Zheng. Can I speak to Arjun, please?"
"Arjun's in a bit of trouble right now," said the voice.
"Please," I said. "It's actually very important. I promise I won't talk long."
This voice was making my throat hurt. I held the phone away and coughed. I coughed harder in response to what I heard next.
"I don't know who you are," said the voice, now sounding less deep, "but you're definitely not Xiu Li. So what the hell do you want?"
"Arjun?" I asked, in my normal voice.
"Yeah, who is this? You're not funny, you know. I've been prank called before."
"Arjun," I said seriously, "this is Renshu Zheng. And I need your help finding my daughter."
"Oh, damn, sorry, Mr. Zheng," he said. "Wait, what?"
"Xiu Li. She's gone missing. And you're the only one I know of that can help me find her."
"Well, I'm home alone," said Arjun, "so I can pretty much go anywhere you need me to. Where should I meet you?"
"Outside Castle Apartments?"
"I'll be there in ten," he promised.

I headed down the stairs and waited around for Arjun. He arrived a couple minutes early, to my surprise, and running at that. "When did she disappear?"
He was cutting straight to the chase, apparently.
"I don't know. Sometime in the evening last night. She left the post office to go home, and when I got home, she wasn't there."
"Why was she at the post office?"
I figured I should operate on a policy of full disclosure if I actually wanted this kid to find Xiu Li. "Because I have a crazy former boss who called the USPS and told them my office is indebted. I have until 6 p.m. tonight to pay off all the debt he racked up in his time as postmaster."
"Is this Mr. Devilbear or something?"
I laughed. "DuBolaire. Yes."
Arjun grinned. "Xiu Li mentioned him a couple times. I'll try looking around town, and I'll do some research on Mr. -- could you write that down?"
I did as he asked, and he pocketed the sheet of paper. "I'll do my best, Mr. Zheng. I'm as worried as you are."
We parted ways.

Then I headed over to the post office. Marjorie had been doing some more intense loan research. Curt seemed ready to go back and start a street riot outside DuBolaire's office if necessary, and I was trying to talk him down from that. Bill reported proudly that'd he'd gotten another couple of sponsors, and asked if I'd found my daughter.
"No, I haven't," I said. "I have one of her friends looking for her today while I work." I turned around to walk towards my office.
Bill spoke sarcastically from behind me. "You mean to tell me," he said, "that you've appointed a high school detective to look for your teenage daughter while you come up with ineffective fundraisers for a lost cause?"
I turned around. "What?"
"Renshu, there's no way we can do this thing without loans. Do you really expect to raise that much money in 12 hours? This isn't the Muppet movie."
"That was a good movie," said Marjorie absentmindedly.
"I have to try," I said.
"You're not a hero, Renshu," said Bill. "You're a postmaster. And we get that you can only do so much. So why bother working yourself into the ground like this? You can't handle this!"
"Yes!" I shouted. "Yes, I can!"
"Listen to you!" he shouted. "Even now!"
"I'm with Renshu, though," said Curt. "We can't just pick our bellybuttons while DuBolaire sabotages us like this!"
"Enough, all of you," I said. "I don't know what we should be doing. But arguing isn't it."
"What a great idea," said Bill. I'd never seen him lose it like this before. It was making me angry.

The phone broke the awkward silence.
Bill stared at it for the first three rings before picking up.
"Hello?" Then his face changed. "You're kidding. Do you want to talk to him?"
He handed the phone to me.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Zheng, this is Arjun. I'm coming to the post office right now. I have something really, really important to show you."
He hung up.
I was really confused. "What'd he say to you?" I asked Bill.
"He just said that he had to talk to you immediately, because it was about more than just your daughter."
"That's not cryptic at all," said Marjorie.
I paced back and forth across the post office. Arjun arrived running again within five minutes of the time he'd called. He had a few sheets of paper in his hand.
"Mr. Zheng," he panted, "I have the answer to all your problems."

It sounded really dramatic. I was inclined not to believe him.
"Well? Let's see it."
He threw down a sheet of paper on my desk.
I picked it up. There was a mugshot of Mr. DuBolaire at the top of the page. He was much younger, though. His hair was longer (though it still had a lot of gel) and he wasn't cleanshaven. Next to the picture were the words "Carson DuBolaire. 18. Breaking and entering; attempted kidnapping."
"Kidnapping?" I looked up. "You think he took Xiu Li?"
"Maybe," said Arjun, "but I'm getting to that." He threw down a couple more pieces of paper. I'd forgotten completely about the post office. "Mr. DuBolaire also has a restraining order from the orphanage, from when he broke in five years ago to try to steal his daughter, Jane Patterson." Okay, now I was confused.
"What?"
Arjun stopped and sighed. "Mr. Zheng, how much did Xiu Li tell you about her time under the city? Did she mention a girl named Annalisa?"
"Yeah," I said.
"Okay. Well, Jane Patterson is Annalisa's legal name. Xiu Li told me that when we hired a detective to go look for her."
"So what does Jane, or Annalisa, or whatever, have to do with my post office or with Xiu Li's whereabouts?" He was actually starting to irritate me.
Arjun looked at the floor. "Well, first of all, Mr. DuBolaire is a criminal. So you can get revenge on him by busting him."
Bill laughed at that one. "Wow. Great background checks from the USPS."
"And Xiu Li?"
"I don't know. But I do know she's been looking for Annalisa. And my best guess is that Annalisa's disappearance and lack of traceability by the police is connected to Mr. Carson DuBolaire's restraining order."
The kid was sharp, I'd give him that. I just wasn't sure about the connection to my daughter. It seemed a little bit forced.
"Why would he use his real name?" I asked.
"Well, he is crazy," suggested Curt.
That was a fair point.

"I guess our next move is to call the police and head over to the post office, then," I said reluctantly.
Bill picked up the phone.

We all crammed ourselves into one of the mail trucks and headed over there. Only after Curt had finally managed to cram everyone in the back did it occur to me that we could've just taken the bus.
"Are your parents okay with you being out?" I asked Arjun.
"They won't be back until 9," he said. "They both have really long hours."
He hadn't answered my question, but I chose to ignore that.

The police arrived at the post office at the same time that we did. Arjun helped me explain the situation to one of the officers on hand.
They followed us into the building, but stayed out of sight from Mr. DuBolaire's office.
I walked in first.
"Oh, hello, Renshu," said Mr. DuBolaire. "Fancy seeing you here. I'd think you'd be out... begging and burgling, with your current predicament."
"You know," I told him, "as my boss, there were a few things you neglected to tell me about your personal life."
He looked bemused. "Oh, really? What makes you think I would tell you anything of the sort?"
I ignored him. "For instance," I continued, "you failed to mention the fact that you're a known criminal."
He paled.
"So," I said. "How'd you get through the USPS?"
"Why do you think I changed offices?"
I nodded. "So where's your precious daughter, then?"
"None of your business," he snapped. "Why are you here, Renshu?"
I stepped out of the office and motioned for the police to come in.
"Because," I said, "you have been a complete asshole to me, not to mention being a douchebag to Xiu Li, and you did all that knowing that I could so easily wreck your life."

To my complete and utter shock, he dropped to his knees as the police came in. "Please, no!" he screamed. "I just want to be with my daughter! You can't take my daughter away from me! My precious Jane! JANE!"
"I think we can," said the policeman nearest to him, and they handcuffed Mr. DuBolaire and took him out of the building.
As they dragged him off, a policewoman asked him where his daughter was, to which he responded, "You'll never know!"
The policeman who'd remained behind with the rest of us in Mr. DuBolaire's office smirked. Then he went over to the closet, picked the lock, and opened it.

Two girls squinted back at us from the tiny space.
My daughter, Xiu Li, and another girl, taller, with darker hair. I assumed she was Annalisa.

They looked really surprised to see us. I smiled, trying not to think about what would've happened if Xiu Li hadn't also been in the closet with DuBolaire's daughter.
Annalisa stood up and helped Xiu Li to her feet. She didn't let go of her hand.
Xiu Li was grinning from ear to ear.
"Dad! Arjun!" she said, and I actually ran into the closet and hugged her.
Annalisa didn't say anything. She just looked at Xiu Li uncertainly. Xiu Li looked at her and squeezed her hand.
Then they both came out of the closet, and I watched awkwardly as my daughter threw her arms around Annalisa's neck and kissed her.

Actually, I lied. I didn't watch. I saw the beginning of it, and then looked away, because that's really awkward.

* * *

We headed back over to the post office, where I had a serious conversation with the USPS. I explained the situation, occasionally handing off the phone to policemen or letting Bill fax something or another.

Eventually, they decided we should still pay off the debt, but we had a month to do so. I sold a few of the extra trucks back to the USPS to get us moving towards that goal. The neighboring post office, now under new management, offered to loan us some money, which we gladly took. So that was that.

After a celebration by all the employees of the post office, I took Xiu Li back to the apartment, along with Annalisa and Arjun.

As we walked over there, Xiu Li and Arjun walked up ahead, talking excitedly. Annalisa and I didn't say anything for awhile. Then I broke the silence and looked at her. "In case you're wondering," I said, "I'm fine with you dating my daughter." She didn't make eye contact.
"Thanks, Mr. Zheng."
"And if you need a place to live until you can get on your feet, you're welcome to stay with us."
"Really?" She smiled faintly. Xiu Li sure had picked a shy one.
"Yes." Wait. "But not in the same room."
She laughed. "Yeah. I figured."

After an entertaining conversation in the TV room, Arjun went home and the girls went to bed. Everyone was pretty tired. Except for me.
So, for the first time in a long time, I decided to stay up late.

I played some video games. I watched TV. And I signed up for an online dating site for the first time.
As I was falling asleep, I worried very briefly that things were about to get boring. But if there's one thing you can count on, it's that there will always be something to keep life interesting.

At that moment, the fire alarm went off.

Treading water

I really don't have a lot to say about today. It was mostly just work, work, work. But I may as well, I suppose. I'm too demoralized to come up with any other details.

When I rubbed my eyes and sat up, I had a huge headache. I could scarcely tell if I was awake, even, because I was too busy focusing on the earsplitting pains emitting from my skull. Every new "bang" from the pipes sent a new stab of pain down my forehead. I shivered.

Eventually, I managed to lug the uncooperative body that was attached to my head over to the bathroom. I splashed some water on my face, and then popped a couple of pills to relieve the pain. Now I only had about 20 more minutes of intense suffering, at least. I splashed more water on my face, got some in my eyes, and didn't even notice that pain compared to the skullsplitting agony above it.

I went and lay down on my bed for a couple of minutes. I was lucky; the painkillers kicked in pretty fast. Or maybe they didn't. I didn't have the best concept of time at that moment.

Anyway, my head was clearer, and the pain had been reduced to a dull throbbing ache. So I walked out into the TV room and headed for the kitchen. Xiu Li was on the couch watching TV. Wait. No, she wasn't. She was reading a book.

I couldn't remember the last time I saw Xiu Li read a book. She's pretty smart and all, but she just doesn't read much anymore. I must admit, my first reaction to seeing her reading was to check over the couch and make sure it was actually her. "Are you reading, Xiu Li?" She looked up at me and nodded, almost guiltily.
I grinned at her. "I haven't seen you do that since you learned how."
Xiu Li glared at me and muttered, "Shut up."
I gestured to the TV, which was off. "Is the TV really that bad?"
"This morning? Yes." I noticed the remote next to her. "Just boring news."
I chuckled at the entire scenario until she finally said, "So, what am I doing today?"
I hadn't thought that far ahead. I didn't want to just leave her in the house, and as much as I felt guilty about it, I really could use the extra help at the post office.
"I need you to help me at work again."
She didn't throw any tantrums or anything. "Do I have to run another postal route?"
She seemed to be under the illusion that I actually had planned ahead what was going to happen today. "I'll give you a solid maybe." I was tired of talking about this, though. And I was hungry.
"Now," I told Xiu Li, having a burst of spontaneity, "come into the kitchen. We're going to make breakfast." And we did. We made french toast, and it was actually really good. I felt, for the first time in what seemed like forever, that I was actually doing a good job as a dad.

After we finished breakfast, I put all the dishes in the sink, gathered up my things, and we were off. It was kind of strange for me to walk to work with my daughter. I kept having to remind myself that this wasn't a permanent arrangement. That reminded me of the high probability of my impending job loss, which was demoralizing. I kicked a rock as we walked down the sidewalk.

When we got there, everyone showed up within a margin of five minutes. I immediately started trying to talk it out. "Okay," I said, "so here's the deal. Bill, I want you to call people up and start seeing if we can get people to sponsor us. Make sure you tell them about how far we've gone to get them their mail. Don't mention the whole shopping cart thing unless you can figure out a way to shed a positive light on it." He nodded, and went over to the desk. He stopped and looked at me like he had a question, but I held up a hand for him to wait. I needed to dole out the tasks as fast as I could. Today I was a manager.
"Curt and Marjorie, I need you both to stay here today and help with fundraisers. We're going to need all hands on deck." Then something occurred to me. "Xiu Li, that means I'm actually going to need you to cover all the mail routes today. I know that'll take up most of your time, but you did such a fabulous job yesterday and you're a big girl. I know you can handle it." Any respect she had for me as a father probably sublimated at that point, but I was on a roll. I could always apologize to her later, and this was essentially my last chance to keep my job. Right? I tried not to think too much about it. Xiu Li scowled impressively and ran out back. I hoped this wouldn't come back to bite me.

I helped Bill compile a list of people to call.
It wasn't a very long list, but I was hoping that some of them would be able to help more than a little bit. After he started dialing the numbers, I started talking to Curt and Marjorie.

"Okay," I told them. "Whatcha got?"
They exchanged glances. "I'll rob a bank," said Marjorie. I couldn't tell if she was kidding, but I shook my head just to be sure.
I was discouraged by the silence that followed, but then Curt spoke. "I think I'll go over to DuBolaire's post office and try to... discourage the competition." He grinned.
For such a quiet, nerdy-looking kid, he certainly had an interesting conniving side.
"You, sir," I said, "are a genius. That sounds like a plan."
Curt left without saying anything else.
I looked at Marjorie. "You can't really rob a bank," I told her. "So what are you going to do?"
She smiled. "I know. I was mostly kidding." That word "mostly" disturbed me a little. "You could go talk to banks about loans," I suggested. Marjorie nodded, surprised. "I hadn't thought of that. Sounds good to me."
I told Eli I needed her to just keep working the counter.

With Marjorie and Curt gone and Bill making phone calls, I decided I needed to take action for myself. I started walking into various stores all over town and essentially soliciting.

Shoes & Etc. didn't give me anything.
The pawn shop tried to convince me to pawn off everything I owned.
Isabella's Cafe thought my post office uniform meant I was some kind of porn star. I left quickly.
I came back in the afternoon, completely wiped out from all my hopeless attempts at raising money. Thankfully, Bill was a smooth talker on the phone and had gotten a little bit of money. Marjorie brought me back a ton of information on loans at banks. I really didn't want to put us further into debt, though, so I decided that would be our backup plan.

We were getting pretty desperate by the afternoon. The post office had apparently specified that we had until six the next day. When Xiu Li came back from her mail route, I gave her a lunch and then told her to go stand on the street corner with a sign.

I felt awful. We were doing all of the stupid cheesy ideas that people make fun of. I was getting so desperate. I could think of very few things I wouldn't have done to raise money. (Well, I didn't like the idea Isabella's had.) Why was I making everyone go through this? I was fighting a losing battle. I didn't know whether or not I should just give up on everything or fight the urge to even think that thought. I was completely overwhelmed with stress and confusion.

I tried to channel some of my stress energy into calculating how much more we had to earn, but that only stressed me out more, since the number was so high.

Eventually, Xiu Li came back from the corner and gave me the money she'd earned. I was actually surprised and impressed with the amount of money she'd earned, and I made a mental note to remember to ask her how she did it, but I was so distracted with other things that I didn't even realize when she'd gone home.

When everyone came back to the post office at the end of the day (Curt had narrowly avoided getting arrested, but apparently he'd managed to convince a few people to use our post office instead of DuBolaire's), I had a serious chat with all of them.

"Tomorrow is going to be a big day. It's possible that we'll end up having tons of loans, but we've already come this far. I really appreciate everything you all have done today, and I hope that we can make it through this."

I thought I was done, and I moved towards the door, but Curt spoke. "Mr. Zheng?"
"Renshu."
"Renshu," said Curt, "I'm willing to give up my salary until we can get this resolved. I have enough to get by, and I think this is important for all of us."
Marjorie nodded. "Me, too."
Bill smiled. "I guess I can do that."
I was shocked. "Thank you," I said as sincerely as I could.

Without another word, we all went home.

I didn't feel like exerting any effort. I lay down on the couch to watch TV. It was only when a nature program about slugs came on that I even thought about Xiu Li. Dammit. 
I stood up. "Xiu Li?"
No answer.
I knew she was gone. It was the same sinking feeling I got on my infamous 33rd birthday. But I had to check.
"XIU LI!"

I am a terrible father.
I didn't even look for her. I didn't have the heart.