2 CATastrophe by Chloe Kendrick

argued the pros and cons of opening this chapter of my life again. Even as I did this, I knew that I’d be sitting down with a cup of tea to read this file.
    Unlike her other requests, I couldn’t undo this one after I opened the file. I would presumably know things and realize things that would change my perspective on my sister, my family or the case. I knew in my heart that Detective Green had already read the file. Something in those pages had struck her, enough so that she wanted me to read it and understand something about my sister’s disappearance. This was the one request that could not be undone in a few weeks, which was why I was dragging my feet so hard on reading the file.
    When I finally got up the nerve to open the folder, the first thing that hit me was a portrait photo of my sister, Susan. It was not one that I remembered, and it was an odd feeling to see her face staring back at me in a different memory than I had of her. I knew when that photo had been taken; our parents had made each of us dress up for a department store photo about six months before Susan disappeared. She was on the cusp of being a teenager, and Mom was in one of her ‘time is fleeting’ moods, which made her want to record everything we did.
    Still, I couldn’t remember what either my brother or sister had worn that day. I just recalled my own button-down striped shirt and jeans. I wondered if my mother still had that photo of me or if she’d thrown it away in the purge of everything related to her daughter. My mother had very few memories left of my family. She’d thrown out photos, report cards, messages, anything that reminded her that she’d been unable to keep her daughter away from the evils of the world.
    The first police statement I saw was my own recounting of the facts. I wondered if my piece was on top by chance or because Green had pulled it to see what I’d said about the disappearance. Part of me even wondered if she’d read it because she was interested in finding out what a pre-teen Griff was like.
    I smiled as I read the statement. I noticed several turns of phrase that I’d used as a kid, and the piece definitely sounded like something that had come from me. There was not much here that I couldn’t have recalled without a few seconds’ notice. Susan had been supposed to be going to the movies with her boyfriend. He’d waited at the theater until the movie started to call the house. She had never showed. I’d answered the phone and told him that she’d left on time to be there before the show started. We lived less than ten blocks from where the movie house was. He called again 35 minutes later to tell me that she still hadn’t shown. His parents had driven him the entire way to our house and back, yet they’d not seen any sign of her.
    At that point, I couldn’t contain what was happening. I’d informed my parents who spoke to the other parents. They hung up, and my mother had immediately called the police. They were limited in what they could do at such an early time. However, given the age of the missing girl and the proximity to her destination, they gave my parents a list of things to do, which included calling all family members, all of her known friends, and things like that.
    The statements had been given on the second day, when it was more obvious that Susan wouldn’t be walking through the door and explaining why she’d been gone for 48 hours. The case was switched to a missing persons case, and the police began to walk the same steps we’d made as we called people.
    My statement came from that time when they’d started to work on the theory that she’d left of her own free will. I’d been asked about her attitude that evening, if she’d seemed overly excited or nervous. I had answered that she always seemed nervous before a date, so it was hard to tell if anything had been out of the ordinary.
    The police asked about my phone calls with the boyfriend. I explained that I’d