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A Puzzling Message
“Hey Cal,” Donna called out, her voice sounding wobbly and confused.An answering grunt came from the large man across the table from her.Donna, quite used to her husband’s guttural responses, continued. “Have you ever heardof someone’s name being in a crossword puzzle?”Cal shrugged and without glancing up from his breakfast plate, continued to shovelforkfuls of scrambled eggs into his mouth.She continued to stare at the paper in front of her. “I mean, I’ve been doing crosswordpuzzles for, well, all my life, and I don’t recall coming across a proper noun before.”“Whatever. You’ve had proper names in your puzzles before,” Cal responded, small bitsof food shooting from his mouth.Donna nodded twice. “Yes, but I’ve never run across my name before.”“Huh?” Cal tilted his massive head; a tangled mass of black hair fell over one eye. Sheused to think his floppy hair was cute – not so much anymore.“Look,” she spun the paper around so he could read it and pushed it toward him. “There,”she pointed to a five letter space. “Seven down. See? Donna.”“Huh.” Cal repeated.Donna resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “What do you think this means?”Cal narrowed his beady eyes to take a closer look. “I think you have the wrong word.”“I don’t think so,” she said. “It says for seven down, ‘A woman’s name meaning Lady,woman.’ My name means that. And it fits with everything else.”“Well, maybe the people who make these crossword puzzles are getting bored anddecided to do something different. Maybe Donna is the name of the office slut.” Hegrinned.She ignored his crass humor and continued. “That’s not even the weird part,” Donna saidwhile taking the paper back. “My brother’s name is on here, too.”“Lonnie?”“No, Mark.”
 
“The crazy one?”“He’s not crazy!” She snapped back. “He’s just … confused.”Cal ripped a paper towel from the roll sitting on the table and swiped at his greasy mouth.“Honey. I hate to tell you this, but running away from your family, abandoning your wifeand kid ain’t confused, it’s crazy. I’m betting Mark met some hot college chick and lefthis family to start over.”Donna shook her head. “I don’t think so. We have a history of mental illness in ourfamily, and I think --”“Mental illness my ass,” Cal growled. “That’s just an excuse to start a new life. He gottired of the old one and pitched it. End of story.”She ground her teeth and resisted the urge to throw her mug of lukewarm coffee into hisface. Though one small part of her sort of agreed with Cal, she knew her brother. Hewasn’t like that. Something had to be wrong.“Besides,” Cal continued, “he’s been MIA for the past five years, give it a rest. Don’t youthink if he was mentally confused someone would have found him and returned him tohis family by now?”“Not if he didn’t know who he was.”This time, Cal was the one who openly rolled his eyes. “Donna, he’s an asswipe whocouldn’t take the responsibility. I simply don’t buy that whole cock-n-bull story abouthim going cuckoo and flying the nest bit. I mean, I talked to the guy, I know what he waslike and I can’t say, I’m surprised. He was always a little off, if you know what I mean.”“Let’s not go down that road again, okay?” Donna pleaded. “Just hear me out. For once,listen to me.”Cal grunted, sat back in the chair and crossed his beefy arms over his bulging chest.“Talk away, I’m all ears.”Donna took a breath and began pointing at various points in the crossword puzzle. “Inaddition to my name and Mark’s name being in this crossword puzzle, there’s Lombard,which is the name of the street where we grew up on, sidewalk, 9:00 o’clock --”“There’s a time?” Cal cocked his head to one side to see the puzzle, interest reflected outof his light brown eyes.She pointed to it. “Yep, right here. There is also circle, block, twice and Happy.” Shecontinued to stare down at the paper. “Happy means, well Slap Happy. That was thename of the bar our father, uh, spent too much time at,” she said with a blush. “Slap
 
Happy is on Lombard Street.” She smacked a hand against the paper to make her pointand looked up at her husband. “I think this is a message from Mark.”Cal laughed, but the sound wasn’t entirely mirthful. “No way. That’s just too …”“Strange?” she finished for him. “If anyone in my family did something like this, itwould be Mark. He knows I’m a crossword junkie; I do them everyday, without fail. He’sbeen missing for five years. We were always close. Maybe he’s trying to get myattention, ask for help.” She bit her lip.Cal was silent for long seconds, mulling over what she was saying. “So, you’re thinking…” he left the rest of his sentence dangling on purpose.Donna snorted in impatience. She loved her big oaf of a husband, but sometimes shewished he wasn’t so thick headed. “That Mark wants me to meet him on the sidewalk infront of Slap Happy’s at 9:00 o’clock tonight.”“What about the other part?”She studied the words for several seconds before snapping her fingers. “He wants me tocircle the block twice, probably to make sure I’m not followed.”“Why do I feel like I’ve been pushed into a James Bond film,” Cal grumbled.“I’m going.”Cal’s eyes widened. “Oh no you’re not.”“Oh yes I am,” she shot back, her jaw locked, her facial expression quite determined.Cal ran a hand through his thick hair in exasperation. “Damn it. I know that look. Fine.But you’re not going alone. I’ll go with you.”“No way. He wants to see me. If he sees you, it might scare him off.”“Donna, there’s no way in hell I’m letting you go to that part of town, at night, byyourself to maybe meet your crazy brother. What if you’re wrong? What if it’s not amessage at all but all just a coincidence? Or,” he licked his lips, “what if it’s a message,but not for you?”She waved his concerns aside. “Either way, I have to go. Even if I’m wrong, at least I’llknow for sure. Not going, well, I would always wonder, you know?”Cal looked doubtful.
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