Floating Away

Floating Away

Marisa Tamayo

04/17/2023

“I say we just wait until the police come out and say something so you know what to do.”

I sat at the island table in the kitchen, staring down at the tabletop as the tears continued to flow down my face. I sat there in disbelief as I tried to process how Amber, my best friend, would just disappear unexpectedly. My parents, Maggie and James, tried everything they could to calm me down, but that wasn’t going to help at all.

“Yeah? Like what, mom?” I asked, “What am I going to do? Sit here and let the cops mess up like they always do?”

Maggie sighed as she tried to formulate the words to comfort me more. My parents didn’t even bother to say a word anymore as I was just in distress at this point. So many thoughts ran through my head: why would Amber just disappear without a trace? Is there even a reason for her to be doing that? Why didn’t she call me?

“Amber is not the type of person who would just leave without a trace,” I continued, my voice breaking, “I know the type of person she is, and she is NOT like this. Ever.”

“It happens all the time, honey,” James said, “There’s people that disappear without a trace, whether or not it’s something suspicious. You have to realize that one way or another.”

“Babe,” Maggie cut in, “Don’t say that, come on.”

“Why? Isn’t it the truth?”

“Leave your daughter alone, you can obviously tell she’s not very happy right now-”

“I’m going to Amber’s house and I’m going to go talk to Mitchell,” I jumped off the chair and walked towards the door, “I’ll come back when I’m done.”




I continued to walk towards the door, not a word coming out of my parents. I wasn’t going to bother with them anymore. Amber is my best friend, and I had to go search for her myself. I’m almost an adult, I have my independence, and I know what I have to do.

I walked through the tunnel with flood proof glass barriers outside of the house and towards my boat. I climbed on top of the boat, walked into the helm area with all the controls, and pulled my phone out of my back pocket to send Mitchell a text.

ME: Hey, you home? Need to talk to you.

I set my phone down on the control desk to turn on the engine. The engine of the boat roared, the propellers spinning as I made sure to check that all the controls were in check. My phone lit up, signaling that I got a text from Mitchell.

MITCHELL: Yeah, I’m home. See you then.

After driving the boat over to Mitchell’s house, I climbed off and stepped onto the little tunnel with flood proof glass barriers protecting me. I walked up to the front door, knocked, and took a step back as I awaited an answer from Mitchell. He then opened the door, and we locked eyes.

“Hey, come on in.”

Walking into that house felt so weird, Everything was quiet, Amber wasn’t there to greet me, and neither were her parents. I tried to hold back tears just thinking about it, but for my own sake, I knew that I needed to be strong.

I walked past the shelf near the television which had two urns with a photo of Amber and Mitchell’s parents in the middle. Since the passing of their parents last year, I’ve had to get used to the fact that the two people who were like my second pair of parents to me were no longer here, but at that point, I was over it. I had to be.

“So?” Mitchell asked as we both took a seat on the couches across from each other, “What’s up?”

“I just…” I shook my head, “I just don’t know what I’m going to do, Mitchell.”

“I know, I know,” Mitchell sighed, “I miss her too. We all do.”



Silence filled the void.

“What do you think we should do?” Mitchell asked.

“I thought about leaving in the morning,” I replied, “If I leave early enough, there’s a better chance of a headstart when looking for Amber.”

“Are you sure your parents will be okay with you going alone?”

“If I’m going with you, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.”

Silence again.

“Alright, let’s go to your place, then.”

After arriving home with Mitchell, I sat down with my parents to discuss what Mitchell and I were planning on doing during our search for Amber. It consisted of: leaving early in the morning, spending an hour or two writing down locations to check, finding a way to contact local news stations to release stories regarding Amber, and more. But, given my parents and how overprotective they are of me, they HAD to add something else.

“I still think you should go to the police station,” Maggie suggested, “You might never know what they will tell you.”

“Mom, we went over this.” I declared.

“Lilly, you know your mother is right,” James commented, “I don’t think we trust you enough to do this all with Mitchell.”

“Amber is MY best friend and I know what I’m doing. I’m leaving in the morning with Mitchell, and we’re doing this together. End of story. I’m going to be okay, I promise.”

“We know that, Lilly, but just listen to-”

“Okay, fine, I’ll go to the police station,” I declared, “But if they don’t do anything about it, then it won’t be my fault.”




As the next morning rolled around, I prepared myself for everything. I only had one mindset, which was to search for Amber. I don’t know what it was going to take to find her, but no matter what it was, I was ready.

Mitchell and I arrived at the police station and hopped off my boat. Once again, we walked through the flood proof tunnel that led us to the stairwell up into the police station. As soon as we walked in, Mitchell and I were greeted by a front desk receptionist.

“Good morning,” The receptionist smiled, “How may I help you guys today?”

“Hello,” I smiled back, “Is there any chance we can talk with a detective from the missing persons unit? It’s quite important.”

“Of course,” the receptionist nodded her head, “Let me see if I can get in contact with any of the detectives.”

After hearing a detective was available to talk to, Mitchell and I walked over to his office to have a discussion. During the discussion, Mitchell and I handed our phones to the detective so he can understand when was the last time we had contact with Amber, and so forth.

“Really my best bet is to put up missing person signs and go to different places and search security cameras,” The detective stated, “I’ll definitely be taking all this information to my fellow employees to work with them, and we’ll reach back to you once we get something.”

“Thank you so much for your time, detective,” I got up from the chair and shook the detective’s hand, Mitchell doing so right after, “Please let me know if you need anything else.”

“Will do. You two have a good one.”

After leaving the police station, Mitchell and I went to his place to make and print out hundreds of missing person posters to put around the city. We also went to different bars and restaurants in the downtown area that have cameras, but after hours upon hours of looking, there was nothing.

We then waited a day or two to see if we got any phone calls or messages from random numbers stating if they had seen Amber or not. Seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours, hours felt like days. Yet, there was nothing.




“I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to give up,” I rested my head on the couch in the living room of my house, “I was really hoping we would have something by now at least.”

“Me too,” Mitchell sighed, “But we haven’t checked Amber’s favorite place, yet.”

When Mitchell said that, I instantly sat up. Amber loved to go to the park to hang out and draw by herself, it was something she always loved to do on the weekends. What are the chances she could even be there?

“You genius,” I jumped off the couch, “Let’s go check.”

Mitchell and I got to the park about 20 minutes later and parked the boat. We climbed down and jumped into the water, sinking just a bit before swimming back up. We swam around the area looking for any clues on the small benches, basketball court, tennis court, and other areas. As we continued to swim around the park, I saw something that ended up catching my attention.

“Isn’t this her necklace?” I asked Mitchell as I grabbed Amber’s necklace. I held the heart shaped charm in the palm of my right hand as I caressed the chain in my left. The charm glistened as the sun’s rays bounced off the beautiful gold color, the chain dangling off my hand.

“Oh my gosh,” Mitchell mumbled, “Amber wouldn’t just leave her necklace here, right? She would wear it all the time. That’s so strange.”

We continued to swim around the park to see if there was anything else that caught our attention. After spending about another 15 minutes searching, Mitchell told me it would be best to go back to the police station and have the detectives run some fingerprint scans on the necklace to see if they could find anyone else’s fingerprints besides Amber’s.

Mitchell and I sat on a couch in the hallway of the police station, officers constantly walking up and down the corridor. We had been at the station for about an hour at that point and I just couldn’t stop thinking about why Amber’s necklace would just be there at the park with no sight of her. There had to be a reason for something so special of hers to be at the park untouched, but the truth will be found out eventually.

“Lilly and Mitchell?” The detective that helped us the first time called out our names and signaled us to his office. We got up from the couch and walked over to him, the door closing right after we stepped in.




“We really couldn’t find anything other than Amber’s fingerprints on the necklace,” The detective commented as I was handed the necklace, “But I’m sure this could possibly be some kind of lead towards her disappearance, so good on you guys for finding it.”

“Is there really anything that you can tell us?” Mitchell asked, “I just want my sister back.”

“We’re trying everything we can, I can assure you that. I completely understand how you are feeling right now, but like I said, if we have any updates, we’ll send them all your way.”

“Thank you again, detective,” Mitchell and I shook his hand, “Hope to see you again soon.”

After Mitchell and I left the police station again, we continued to drive the boat around through the downtown area. It was about 9 PM already, and everything seemingly started to quiet down. The buildings lit up in different colors with street lamps giving an ambience feel to the area. I drove the boat around as Mitchell sat next to me on my right, not a word being spoken.

“I just don’t understand,” Mitchell broke the silence, “Why would she just disappear like that? It makes no sense.”

“After your parents died, did Amber ever recover from that?” I asked.

“Somewhat,” Mitchell replied, “There will be times that she can go a while without talking about it, but other times, she’ll just… always talk about it.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, truly.”

Silence.

“Amber always talked about how she couldn’t handle their death. She always talked about running away too, all alone. I tried to not let it happen, but it did. Genuinely might enjoy the peace now.”

That last sentence threw me off guard. What did Mitchell mean by that? Why would he even say that? It made no sense.



After hearing that sentence, I immediately put the boat to a stop. At that moment, I felt my heart sink. I turned to look at Mitchell, slowly rising from my seat.

“Mitchell,” I started to step back away from him, “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, you know,” He smirked, “I was sick of her just talking about mom and dad most of the time, considering I was the one that helped her through everything.”

“I did too, Mitchell, even if you fail to recognize that most of the time.”

I quickly started stepping backwards towards the door, pushing it open as fast as I could. Mitchell kept approaching me as I began to cry from fear. I stepped out onto the open area of the boat, looking around to see if anyone was near me.

“Come here, Lilly,” He walked towards me, “I’m not going to hurt you, you know that.”

“Get away from me,” my voice broke as I placed my hands in front of my face, “Now.”

“Oh quit being so dramatic.”

“Mitchell, get the hell away from me.”

Mitchell continued to approach me as I kept backing away from him. There was no available weapon that I could really use. Only my hands, arms, and legs could be used to kick at and hit Mitchell if needed.

Without thinking, I threw myself off the boat, splashing into the salt water. I rose to the top, the water stinging my eyes. All I could do was just swim as fast as I could. I couldn’t hesitate, I just had to get out of there fast.

Mitchell jumped into the water about 20 seconds later, but I couldn’t even bother to look back. I had to focus on swimming as fast as I could to get away from Mitchell as fast as I could, but the thought of leaving my boat there too was worrying.

As I kept swimming, I saw a familiar boat coming towards me. I stopped to breathe, opening my eyes even though the salt water kept getting in them, which caused me to groan in pain. Trying to keep my eyes open, I focused on the boat coming towards me; it was my parents.

“Mom! Dad!” I waved my hands in the air as they started to come closer and closer, “I’m over here! Help!”

The boat came to a complete stop right in front of me. I swam over to the boat as the salt water continued to drip down my face as I kept my eyes closed while my parents pulled me up into the boat. My heart kept racing from the adrenaline, my arms and legs feeling like jelly from swimming so fast. My parents pulled me up onto the boat, feeling my body fall forward as I landed on the boat. My emotions began to wash over me as I slowly opened my eyes, my parents standing over me, wondering if I was okay or not.

“We’ve got you,” Maggie pulled me off the floor and hugged me, her voice cracking, “We’ve got you, honey.”

“We need to go,” I sobbed into my mother’s chest, “Please, we need to go.”

“Let’s hook up your boat to the back of this one and then we’ll go, okay?” James said, “We’ll get you home, Lilly.”

Once Mitchell realized my parents were there, he began to swim away. Out of nowhere, the police boat showed up too.

“Mitchell Reeves, you are under arrest,” A voice announced, “Stop where you are right now, and put your hands up.”

As my dad used a rope to hook up my boat, I watched as Mitchell was arrested. I was in complete disbelief. I never expected him to do this to Amber or himself. Why did I trust him? Why didn’t I watch for the signs if there were any? So many thoughts ran through my head as my dad drove off towards the house, the police boat driving in another direction with Mitchell tied to a chair.

I sat up against the railing of the boat, remaining quiet on the boat ride home. I lost all my trust in Mitchell, and maybe even others around me. I’ve always heard in my life to never trust people around me because your friends aren’t the people you think they are, but with Mitchell, I felt different. I had to watch the man I trusted be arrested because he was responsible for the disappearance of my best friend.

Yet, that would never stop me from searching for Amber, even whether or not I’d ever find her again.