I got a call from Lisa last week, forgot about it till just now. It was late, after 10, late for Lisa to be calling. She has to get up at 4 in the morning so she's usually sleeping long before 9.
She said she'd just gotten a call from my ex's fiance. She'd gotten Lisa's number from the phone book and was frantically searching for Sarah.
She told Lisa some desturbing things about Sarah and asked Lisa if she heard from her to let her know. Lisa didn't offer to tell her that Sarah's here with me, but took this woman's number down and told her she'd have me call her.
I wrote down the number had Sarah come sit at the kitchen table with me and I called this woman back.
She told me that she and Sarah had been talking over their cell phones while Sarah was in Mississippi and Sarah had called and asked them for money, that she needed to feed her kids and was broke and desperate and that they'd sent money and packages to the address there in Mississippi but they came back undeliverable, and then Sarah's phones were cut off.
She said that she'd been trying to find Sarah for weeks but didn't have any luck and they were worried sick. She went on to say that she'd found someone down there named "Fred", and this Fred told her that Sarah had gotten into some trouble over drugs and left.. that she'd just fallen off the face of the earth, he didn't know where she was.
I was repeating this as the woman was talking so Sarah could hear, Sarah's jaw dropped and she took the phone.. she started to stand, and my initital thought was ok she's gonna wander off so I can't hear what she's telling this woman, so I said, No, sit right here, don't wander away Sarah. Sarah sat closer to me, said she wasn't wandering away she was just moving so I could hear the conversation.
She told the woman harshly that she'd only spoken with her one time, they didn't have an ongoing phone relationship, she was fine and not in drug trouble, and she didn't know anyone named Fred. She told the woman not to call back and to leave her alone.
I was left with a thousand questions. I had asked that woman if in the phone call asking for money to feed the girls did Sarah say or imply the kids were with her, and then I let her know they live with me and we didn't need anything for them, they're just fine. This was just one strange phone call.
The next day, Bonnie came in and I told her about it. She wanted to speak to the woman too, so I gave her the number. The woman told Bonnie much the same thing she told me and Lisa, but said she didn't have a number to find "Fred" again, but this time she added she didn't mean to get Sarah in trouble that "Fred" sounded bitter to her and she wouldn't put much stock in what he'd said.
I so wonder.. how did this woman find Fred. How did she know to find a mutual aquaintance of Sarah's like that down there, I'd not have known to call around to find a Fred. I would have had to call the State police to try to find Sarah for me if she'd gone missing. Curiouser and Curiouser.
What a strange phone call.
Posted by juel at December 12, 2007 05:39 AM