O
(A Short Story)

When a young college student disappeared without trace on the campus of Louis Solomon’s College on Long Island, New York, everybody concluded that she was missing. And so the report was just another entry into the “Missing Persons” case file. The school authorities, her family and the Police started looking for her. They were afraid of the worst case scenario- homicide. They queried her boyfriend who was the last person with her in the apartment she shared with her roommate.

“ Joel saw her last,” said Christy nodding her head affirmatively.
“ Were Joel and Sandy in good terms?” asked the Police detective Raymond Williams.
“ They were having the best time of the lives since they started dating,” replied Christy.
“ When did they start dating?”
“ Since she was a fresh woman and Joel was a sophomore. Two years ago.”

The detective asked so many questions as he met with her middle aged parents and two brothers and sister. But they all concurred that Sandy was not having any problems at school or with anybody. So they suspected no foul play.

“This is a mysterious case. Some college girl just disappeared from her room on campus before the boyfriend could pee and rejoin her in the same apartment. Her glass of milkshake and crackers were still were still on the table. And the TV was still on, with the VCD on pause. Where do we go from there?” Raymond said as he sat down to deliberate over the case with his colleagues at work in the Long Island Police Department (LIPD)

"Could be another freak science fiction case as in the movies,” joked one of them and the others laughed. But it was not a laughing matter to Raymond.

“This is no fiction. It happened and the girl’s family is heart broken. The boyfriend is in a shock. The whole campus is bewildered,” Raymond said.

“Was she blonde?” asked another colleague.

“Take a look,” said Raymond bringing out her picture from the file and showing it to them.

“Miss America!”

“Baby, baby! I would give anything to disappear with this dish.”

“She’s a knockout!”

“Boy! She’s cool.”

They remarked with gestures of admiration.

“Well, you can only dream. Because, she is gone! Disappeared into thin air,” said Raymond.“ Vanished. Like those girls in the magic box. But this one never reappeared. No trace and no clue.” He added and sighed.

He held on her picture for a while, gazing at it as if to discern an answer from within her angelic face. He did not see any signs and he did not hear anything. Only the glints in her flashy white teeth of her smiling face seemed to make the picture sparkle brighter as he gazed at her in awe. He was speechless for a while.

Should he interrogate Joel again. Because everything points at the boyfriend…as at present. Until…

Meanwhile, on the campus of Louis Solomon’s College, Joel and Christy were still wondering how their soul of the party and belle of the ball, Sandra Thomas could disappear without any trace. And all the phone calls and enquiries they and the search party have made were fruitless. It was even worse than a wild goose chase.

“Christy, its just unbelievable. It is like I am having a nightmare! How can I believe it? That this really happened? No! Its not possible,” Joel was lamenting almost in tears.

He was yet to recover from the shock. And the interrogation of the Police had only made him to come to grasps with the unearthly reality of the occurrence. That his beloved Sandy could just vanish within seconds of leaving her on this very settee he and Christy were sitting on now. Where both of them have shared the most precious moments of their ecstatic romance like two love struck fairies in a whirlwind. They have been floating in the clouds of their fantasies. Love lost. She was his Helen of Troy. He had been proud to introduce her to his mother in Denver last summer whilst on holidays. Sandy had made his mother to laugh so loud that the neighbours heard her ringing laughter and came around to find out the reason for her joy. Because they had never seen her so happy since Dennis left her and Joel eleven years ago when Joel was only a twelve year old kid in junior high. And he was the only surviving child. The other one – a baby girl died of leukemia at ten. Her death broke Maggie’s heart and she was yet to recover when Dennis left her for his mistress in Missouri. He was in love with the other woman , an actress and club dancer. Dennis had always complained about Maggie not being glamorous. They met in high school when the red headed young girl was a cheerleader and he was one of the big boys in the football team. She reminded him of one of those bobby soxers he had seen in the old movies and he fell in love with her. But Maggie went to college and became sober after graduation. She chose to be a simple school teacher whilst he opted for working his way up as a long distance truck driver. He was an adventurous young man. He met the other woman on the road, in a motel where she was performing.

“Joel. I am still afraid,” quipped Christy.

Joel was still reminiscing and only looked at Christy vacantly. Gaping and moping blankly. He had no answers to the mystery. Except the misery it had brought him. Harrowing in sorrow.

“Oh, Christy,” he groaned as she held his right hand tightly, in fear and trembling.

They were three’s a company on campus and in town. Having jolly rides in his Ford jeep that his father left behind for his mother and she left it for him when Joel gained admission into college. He would need it more than her. She bought a small saloon car for her own use.

What happened to Sandy?

How could she just disappear without trace within minutes of returning to their apartment with Joel after her last class?

How could this be possible?

It had no logic and no rationale. Unimaginable.

Unthinkable. Who could explain and unravel the mystery?

This was not a scene in horror movies like those Halloween shrieks or thrillers. This was a reality. It occurred. Right here on campus. At Louis Solomon’s. It was the news on the lips of everyone who had heard it and the whispers of the gossips who had been jealous and envious of the romance of Joel and Sandy. The local and national dailies and newsmagazines had been on it for three days since the news broke last Saturday, a day after it happened. When it dawned on Joel and Christy that Sandy was not playing pranks to frighten them and that something horrible and terrible must have happened to her.

Kidnapped? And abducted? Murdered and the murderer or killers got rid of her body. So her corpse had not been found till date. But if this was the suspicion, there would have been a trace or a clue. Footprints. Fingerprints. Signs of a struggle or a scuffle as Sandy tried to resist being kidnapped and taken away. Or she was lured out and led away by an unknown person or persons. Who could it be or who could they be?

Kidnappers on the prowl? Aliens from another planet? Or Sandy had a secret extra curricula activity nobody knew and she had gone on a secret mission that even Joel must not know. So, immediately, he excused himself to go to the closet, she sneaked out and left before Joel could see her or notice? Or Joel was not telling the truth. He was the prime suspect and the only one as at present. The Police must go to the extremes in their interrogation to get the truth out of him.

“They should torture him, otherwise they will never get him to say the true thing that happened to Sandy that he had not revealed to anybody. He cannot be trusted. Even the most innocent looking person could be a silent criminal in secret,” one of the theorists said.

All theories, mysteries, suggestions, suspicions and X File cases were taken into consideration. No stone was left unturned in the investigations and searches in newspapers, magazines , on the radio, Internet and on TV. The wealthy parents of Sandy even employed the services of private investigators and professional search parties to find out the whereabouts of Sandy Thomas. The father, a prominent New York attorney made pleas on TV and on the radio with his wife, a medical doctor by his side. Relatives, friends and colleagues were sympathetic and they were visiting to commiserate with them. They kept on referring to Joel all the time. But Mr. and Mrs. Thomas said that they had met and accepted Joel when Sandra introduced him to them as her boyfriend. And they were impressed by the bright and good looking tall young man who was on the honours list at college. Joel was already being recommended for a scholarship to go to Harvard Law School next fall. And Mr. Thomas was giving him his approval and support, since Sandra really loved him and wanted to get married to him. So, Joel was not the person to suspect, no matter what anybody thought or suggested. They feared that something more sinister had happened to their beloved daughter and they were ready to spend all their hard earned savings on the case until they found out what really happened to her. Whether good or evil. They were not going to give up on the search for the whereabouts of Sandy. Mrs. Thomas was even on the Oprah Winfrey Show where she wept profusely in front of Lady Oprah, and Oprah was equally weeping as she was moved to tears by the emotions of a very passionate mother as she lamented the heart-rending predicament of losing her beloved daughter in mysterious circumstances yet to be unraveled by the Police and all the search parties and investigators looking for the missing beauty. Her picture made the live audience to weep openly on camera as her mother sobbed before their very eyes. Joel and Christy were also interviewed and people queried Joel again and again until he broke into tears. But many viewers said his tears did not impress them. That Joel was still the prime suspect to be held responsible. No more, no less. This attracted the FBI into the case. Millions of e-mails, letters and phonecalls were received from all over America and the rest of the world. And as expected, many phony claims were made by unknown persons either claiming to know or have a clue about the whereabouts of Sandra Thomas. There was a reward; $1,000,000 ( one million dollars) and the parents said they would give the money to anyone or group that could find their daughter alive or even dead.

“We just want to see our Sandy again,” the parents said.

Back to Louis Solomon’s College, inside Sandy’s apartment. Joel and Christy were still trying to overcome their fears and keep up with their studies. And Christy was afraid of staying alone in the apartment. So, Joel came around to stay with her or her other mates and friends took turns to stay with her. And in the heat of the tension, Joel had a row with a college mate who made fun of their fears. Joel had already slapped the person, before Christy could hold him back. The “guy” had joked that Joel would now be sleeping with Christy since Sandy disappeared. Joel was not amused. And Christy was also annoyed. She asked the “guy” to leave their apartment.

Joel and Christy were bored and she wanted to put on a VCD of a film, entitled “ O “.

This was how it all began. When Joel and Sandy came into the apartment last Friday with smiles and laughter of joy in-between kisses and smacking lips.

“I brought this great horror film from the club,” said Sandy. Brandishing the VCD.

“How did you know it is a horror film?” asked Joel.

“See, it is on the label,” replied Sandy showing him the title.

“Whouuuu!” Joel shrieked with a monstrous grimace, mimicking a nightmarish goon as he had seen in numerous horror flicks.

“Ohhh! Joeeel, come off it. I am too big to be frightened by all those horrific clowns in the movies. I saw worse things in the morgue, watching my mum cutting up corpses in autopsy,” said Sandy laughing it off.
She was going to slot in the VCD.

“Angel, let me pee,” said Joel.

“C’mon, you better don’t miss any bit of this,” she said.

“Sure,” he nodded.

Joel went to the closet just next room to the living room.

Sandy had slotted in the VCD and pressed “PLAY” on the remote control.

It started playing. The picture was black. Followed by the opening music. It was a Latin chant with haunting music. Funeral. Then the title appeared in a flash. “O”. A screech. Then the O was getting larger. And as it was doing so, Sandy stood up dumbly as if in a trance. Hypnotized. Drawn by an invisible force emanating from within the picture on the screen of the TV. She was drawn by the vibrations and suddenly she disappeared into the TV.
Joel came out of the closet and wondered where she had gone.

"Sandy?".

N.B:
O has not been edited and is still a work-in-progress.

Thank you for taking your time to read it.

I watched the Ring.
The Ring is about a paranormal demonic phenomena.
O is pure science fiction.

You can read my other short stories in my journal on Oprah Winfrey's oprah.com.
I am a member of her book club and actually wrote O to tickle her fancy.

It's a nice story. The later part reminds me of the ring too.
How do we get to see the concluding part? You are a good writer but cross-check grammar.

EmemJU,
Thanks.

You are right about the grammar.
But I have a good editor who actually sits down with me to cross-check and we even brainstorm on the development of the sentences. That is why I have not been posting my fiction online, because he has not edited most of my stories. And the stories he has edited cannot be posted online, because the publishers have the publishing rights over them.

I prefer those who understand English literature to analyze my fiction word for word.
I am not satisfied with the standard of English displayed in my fiction.

I want O to be more mysterious than the Ring.
The Ring was just demonic and that is too base for me.
O is metaphysical.

We do need a continuation, don't we?

I cannot even read it