Mabel, Episode 6, vanished, in which the end is nigh.

The VEVille Hi, you've reached Mabel Martin. I'm not here to take your call right now, so please leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks. She said. It's seven in the morning.

Sally hasn't called yet, so I'm lying here under the cover still, looking up at the white eye on top of my bed.

Lily's bed.

Lily's eye.

The day hasn't really begun yet, so I think it's all right to talk about this. It won't count.

My uncle disappeared too. One day he was there and then he wasn't.

And he never came home.

My grandparents looked for him.

Of course they looked for him.

They searched the shrub land for him every day for weeks and then, every week for months and

months.

He went out with his friends and said he was going to walk home sometime around midnight, but

he never reached the house. He never reached anywhere.

They found his shoes in an orchard up off the main road out of town, and they found his wallet

under a black chokeberry bush in the hills,

something like 15 miles away.

How do a kid's shoes end up in an orchard?

I used to think it was impossible for anyone to just vanish, but I've been up in the

wilderness.

There's so much of it.

It's so ancient.

...