Polka Dot Sock

DECEMBER 24TH, 2004

“My name is Detective Sarah Nolan, can you state your name for the record?”

I choked through the dryness in the air. Three-hundred and sixty-five days and it still wasn’t any easier.

“My name is Jackson Price.” I said through shaking vocal cords.

“Jackson, can you verify today’s date for me?” Her voice wasn’t robotic, but very procedural. It was subtle, but little ticks in her delivery told me it was nothing personal.

“It is-“

DECEMBER 24TH, 2003

I moved through the dense crowds with careful precision, making sure to be quick but keeping her hand tightly held in mine. Christmas shopping is never fun this close to the date, but work had held me longer than I’d wanted all week and now we were down to the wire. Katie was very understanding and managed to get most of the shopping done herself, but Elaine was sick all week and couldn’t come with. Now it was eight o’clock on Christmas Eve and she still hadn’t got the chance to buy any gifts.

“Daddy! I have to pee” She yelled, trying her best to have her little voice heard over the roar of passers by. 

“I know sweetie, just please try and hold it until we can get out of here. I’ll take you by the gas station on the way home.” I continued to push through the jumbled mess of humans in my path. I didn’t want to make her wait, but I couldn’t trust her to be out of my sight for one second. We just needed to hit off one to two stores and then we were gone. I managed to navigate my way over to the Five Below in the back of the mall. The crowds had dissipated some the further we got from the food court. We made our way over to the section that had a lot of novelty items.

“Okay sweetie, just grab up a few things you want for Mommy and me, then we can get out of here and I’ll take you to the bathroom.” I said, the stress of the holidays mounting on me ten-fold. She grumbled and gave me a mean scowl. “What’s wrong?” I said.

“Well I don’t want you to know what I’m gonna get you! There’s no magic..” She said, her head hung in sadness. I knelt down to match her height and took my finger to her chin, lifting it so our eyes met.

“I don’t normally do this, but I’ll cut you a deal, okay? There’s a secret code word you can say that will completely wipe my memory after a few hours. If I tell you the word, do you promise to use it wisely?” I smirked, watching her eyes light up with imagination. She gleefully nodded as I placed one hand on each of her shoulders. “You ready? The word is… asparagus.” She leaned back, skeptical of the knowledge I had bestowed on her.

“I just have to say it and you won’t remember anything?” She questioned. I nodded quickly, assuring her what I just said was true.

“It’ll be like the next few hours will not have happened. Okay?” She took a moment, building up the magic power of the words she was about to utter.

“Mmmmm. Wait- ! I don’t want you to forget this.” She paused, before giving me a huge hug, her purple puffer jacket suffocating my face. “You’re the best daddy in the world.” She pulled away, revving up her body to cast the spell. “Asparagus!” She screamed. I played it up, acting very confused and shaking my head around like something otherworldly had just occurred.

“Woo! That feels funny!” She giggled, her rosy cheeks warming my heart. “Okay! Spell’s done. Let’s get to gifting!”

DECEMBER 24TH, 2004

Detective Nolan shifted in her chair, pulling out a packet of files and a yellow notepad. She hadn’t told me much, just that there was a development in Elaine’s case and I needed to come down immediately.

“I appreciate you coming down on such short notice, Mr. Price. I’m sure it was a tall ask given the holidays.” She said, her voice stern but sympathetic to the situation.

“No, it’s no trouble at all. Anything to help with Elaine’s case. Besides- holidays aren’t really all that busy these days.” I muttered through a weak voice. Katie and I had split a few months back, saying she couldn’t stand the pain of quote ‘losing her daughter and husband all in one go.’ In reality, I think the marriage ended that Christmas a year ago. She never said it, but I knew she blamed me for what happened to Elaine. From that night on, all I ever got was cold stares and arguments about what I could have done. She moved back to Cincinnati with her parents in October to get some space from it all. We would talk every once in a while, usually just to relay any updates I get about Elaine.

“I’m sorry this has been so hard on you and your wife, Mr. Price. We did get some new evidence that could pertain to Elaine’s case. Before I share it with you, I just wanted to go over some of the questions you’ve answered previously, just to confirm some information, is that alright?” She leaned forward, understanding the weight of it all can’t be easy to overcome. I gave her a quick head nod, which she answered by pulling out a few sheets of paper from her folder.

“Could you describe what Elaine was wearing when you last saw her?” She said, her notepad at the ready.

“Of course. She uh- she was wearing her winter coat. It was a purple puffer jacket we’d bought her the previous year. It had a ketchup stain on the left sleeve. She had a glittery scarf, a white knit sweater, some jeans we’d bought her for school, and a pair of white velcro sneakers.”

“What about her head? Did she have a hat on?”

“Uh- Yes! Yeah she had a purple toboggan to match the coat.”

“And socks?”

“I’m sorry?”

“What about her socks? Do you remember what pair she had?”

“Right, sorry. Yes, she had a pair of orange and red polka dot socks.” She leaned back in her chair, reading over the previous case notes. My heart was beating out of my chest. What could they have found?

“Could you please tell me what’s happened?” I pleaded, the anxiety in my chest practically shoving me into the back of the chair.

“Please, we’re almost done. I know it’s hard to ask you to be patient right now, but I just need to get through these and make sure of some things before we continue.” Her tone having lost that forgiving edge it possessed before, now full blown procedural. She flipped one of the white pages around, tracing the paper with her eyes.

“To the best of your ability, Mr. Price. Can you recall the events of the night, right up to her disappearance?”

DECEMBER 24TH, 2003

We rushed out of the store, bags in hand and ready to get out of there. The mall was already closing so the few people hanging around the back of the building had all migrated to the front doors. There were many exits, but only one of them opened up to the main parking lot, a true flaw in the architect's vision of the place. This meant that Elaine and I would be putting ourselves right into the heart of an enormous mess of people, all pushing and shoving to get out first. My hands were full with bags and I’d have no way of carrying her through it all, so I thought of something.

“Hey honey, you still gotta go pee?” I said, figuring a little bathroom break would give us enough time to let the crowd thin out. She viciously nodded, doing that weird walk that kids do when they’re a step away from bursting. I gestured over to the neon bathroom sign ahead of us. It was one of those mall bathrooms hidden down a long white hallway with an exit door at the end of it. I didn’t need to go so I’d keep watch for when she got out. She bolted down the hall and into the women's room, promptly followed by the slamming of a stall door. I set my bags down at my feet, propping myself up against the wall adjacent to the bathrooms.

“Hey daddy? So- you really won’t remember anything I tell you for the next few hours?” She asked. A question which I was sure would be followed up by a confession. Regardless, I took the bait.

“That’s right, sweetie, anything at all.”

“Well… sometimes when we’re taking tests at school, I sneak looks at my friend’s paper and copy what she’s saying.” I winced at her words, torn between two different courses of action. One half of me feeling the need to scold her as a parent should, but the other half of me knew she was having fun, and figured scolding could be saved for a more appropriate time. Before I could decide which way to go, I heard a voice call to me from the hallway entrance.

“Excuse me, sir. The mall’s closing. I’m going to need you to grab your stuff and please exit through the front doors.” It was the mall security, a tubbier guy in his late thirties from the looks of it. My guess was they were doing their laps to round up stragglers. I knew the place had a big problem with teenagers trying to pull all-nighters there.

“Yeah, I’m about to leave. My daughter’s just using the-”

“Now. Sir. I’m not going to ask twice.” He said, his hands propped up on his shiny dollar store belt. I could tell he was on a power trip and nothing was going to get him to listen to me. I figured if I came out of the hallway and stood at the entrance it’d at least be enough for him to see I wasn’t a threat. I started back toward the main concourse, calling out to him as I did.

“Look, my daughter’s in there using the bathroom, okay? I just need to let her finish and then I’m gone.” He groaned at me, clearly still pissy that his ego was crushed by sound logic, but at least understanding the situation. Once he saw me reach the end of the hall, he walked off to go annoy his next victim. I checked my watch, noticing it was a quarter past nine, the normal time that the mall closes. I let out a deep sigh, realizing I still had to wrap presents, make cookies for ‘Santa’ and stuff stockings when I got back. Then I heard it.

*BANG*

I swung my head back around. The exit doors at the end of the hall had been opened, pushed through with far too much force for her to have done it.

“Elaine? …Elaine!”

Without a second thought, I dropped the bags, kicking into a full sprint down the hall. I barrelled through the doors, out into the darkness. The doors kicked out to the area behind the mall, a place where regular people usually weren’t authorized to be. I scoured the area, screaming at the top of my lungs. I checked bushes, dumpsters, even peeking into car windows. No sign of her, panic was taking over.

“ELAINE! SWEETIE! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!”

My eyes caught a glimpse of a red hue out of my peripherals, turning to see the brake lights of a small black car. Before I could even register it, the car slammed on the gas, peeling out of the back lot. I chased after, running until the cold air burnt a hole straight through my lungs. I must’ve ran a mile or two before I tripped, the full weight of my body sliding across the asphalt. I shoved myself up, the adrenaline masking the ribs I’d just fractured. I tried to continue the pursuit but that split second had been just enough time for the car to zip out of my line of sight. I panted and tried to call out again, but eventually the adrenaline wore off, my body gave out and I dropped to my knees, the reality of it all settling in.

She was gone.

DECEMBER 24TH, 2004

I shoved back tears, telling Detective Nolan that while I had seen the license plate, my memory could only make out the first three digits of the number.

“K4Y.”

She tucked her hair back behind her ears as she listened, writing little notes as I went along. I had forgotten bits and pieces of that night over the past year but those moments were ingrained in my memory like a nightmare I’m forced to relive over and over again. Yet for all of the torture it gives me, I could never seem to remember that damned license plate. She leaned back in her seat, taking in a deep sigh.

“Please. I know you’re just following procedure, but I need to know. Did you find anything? Do you know where she is?” I choked out, my patience having run out. I pleaded to this woman, one human to another to just tell me. Elaine was all I had thought about for the past year. Endless search parties, missing posters, anything I could do to try and give this a fighting chance. She cleared her throat, pulling out a smaller file from her large stack. I could tell by the color of the folder. It was a mortuary report.

“Last night, we got a call that two hunters had discovered a body in the woods about twenty miles outside of the city. There’s been a pretty extensive amount of.. decomposition, but we believe there’s a chance it may be a match for... -I understand these photos are going to be tough to view, so please look at your own pace. We just need to get some confirmation from the family.” She carefully slid the file across the table, making sure to keep it closed. I was in paralysis, unable to force my hand to grab it. My vision was getting blurry and I felt like I was about to pass out. The only thing that kept me alive was the nagging words in the back of my mind.

I had to know.

I mustered up the strength to reach for the file, pulling it over to my side. As I opened the front, I was met with the sight of a ghost. An unrecognizable jigsaw puzzle of bones and tattered clothing, all obscured by the wear and tear of mother nature. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t accept that this was my baby. Where were her rosy cheeks? Her long brown hair? I flipped through the pages, convincing myself it couldn’t be. Her hair was short, poorly cut. Nothing like Elaine’s. On top of that, the clothes didn’t match at all. This girl was wearing a gift shop sports shirt and basketball shorts. Her cheeks were gaunt and sunken, the opposite of Elaine’s. I tossed them aside, photo after photo, growing more confident they had the wrong girl until I pulled away the second to last photo, showing a picture of the feet. One was naked, dirty and calloused from overuse. The other… I leaned in, my eyes welling up with tears. The other one was covered. Covered by an orange and red…

Polka Dot Sock