The Story Makers.

The Story Makers.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

What was lost, is found.....

This morning we had on the docket a plan for a 12 mile run.
Unfortunately we woke up to drizzling rain.
My running clothes were all laid out,
M was planning on being woken up to stay at Tina's while we ran.
She was looking forward to hanging on the couch 
watching a movie while eating a baggie of sugar cereal.
I actually felt like getting out there....rain or no rain.
I sent texts to Tina and Christi.....
we were all on the edge of waffling...everything was in favor 
of not going.
In the end we pushed it through with a loose plan to 
end our run at anytime if it got too miserable.
Perfect.
I was testing out a pair of pink and white striped knee highs,
a possible addition to our marathon running outfit.
We settled M, and were off in our visors for the unknown.
M had suggested a prayer before we got out of the car, 
to pray for a light rain fall so it wouldn't be to bad on us.
We did that.

We were enjoying each others company as usual,
it was pretty dark.
Christi and I pulled ahead, T was not too far behind...
also as usual.
Around a mile and a half C and I wanted to double back and 
touch base with T.
How ya doing?
Fine....why are you two stopping?
we have barely gone over a mile.
Oh, you know, just checking in.
Well get moving!
OK, ok...
we were off.
(anything for a little break right Christi?)

We went another mile or so and turned again to get T in our view.
We were running.
Talking about implants, fake eyelashes,
how hard would it be to do our own lashes....was it even possible??
and so forth....deep stuff.
Finally after running back a bit we were like, hey where the heck is Tina?
How far back was she?
We sped it up....
oh, there, is that her??
hmmmm, no just a fire hydrant.
Running....running....
oh wait, is that two legs up ahead???
oh, no, just tree branches on the ground.

What the heck?

We went back and forth on how we could have missed her?
.....passed her?
Could she have passed us somehow?
We ended up running all the way back to her house,
not quite 6 miles round trip.
We asked the gate guard if he'd seen her, no.
We knew she hadn't made it home when we saw her garage
was still down.
Hmmmmm......we got in our van and decided to back track and 
find her on the trail.
This went on.
We went over the whole route,
which unfortunately we were a bit sketchy on.
We would have called each other,
but unfortunately again, none of us run with our phones.

We could not find her.
She was no where.

At what point do you call a spouse?
When do you call the police?

Well, for Christi and I we did both simultaneously,
right then.
It was go time in our books!
She called the police,
I called the Descovich residence.
Braden, her son answered.
Hey Braden, how's it going?....
oh that's nice, have you seen your mom?
oh, she's not back yet, well is big D up yet?
No huh....well, can you go wake him I need to speak with him.

Dread.

Hi Derek, um, I just wanted to let you know that we lost Tina.
W h a t ?
Don't panic, we are still looking, I am sure we will find her
but it just didn't feel right not keeping you in the loop...
We didn't want you to be surprised if a police officer
shows up at the house.
......and so forth....
We drove the route again, this time going all the way over the 
other causeway, just in case Tina became wonder woman
and forged ahead on her own covering the entire 12 mile course.
But  Nothing  - 

no single white female,
5'5, dark hair in a ponytail, blue tank top,
black running skirt, slender, late thirties.
No one like that was out running alone.

At one point Christi says,
Wow.  
I have never been more stressed.....
about another runner.
Why we started laughing our brains out over this I have no idea.
She comes up with some crazy stuff.
I think it was the worry and the pressure.

Not to long before this happened I made it a point to 
let Christi know that in fact it was not Tina who got us out running 
this morning, but it was all thanks to ME!!
Yeah!  ME!!
oh great, now I get to have that on my conscience forever.

We saw a police car,
we decided to stop and see if they had found anything out.
It felt weird pulling up to the car, 
usually when they pull up to me I am unhappy........
anyway, it was a woman police officer,
 after we got done catching her up,
her making several C-B calls and saying 10/4 a lot,
she finally said.
They have her.
She is fine, they are heading back to her home.
What? 
Really?
She is alive?
Oh HO HO!!
YES!
Whooohoo!
We tried to get more details, like where did they find her?
....in some bushes??
Is she badly hurt???
and so forth...but she wouldn't tell us anything else.
WE called D with the great news and sped back to their place
for the reunion.
D was out side, T was still not there.
Laaaadddeeeedaaaaaaaa......
waiting for a really long time.
I can't tell you every detail....but suddenly D goes storming in the house,
comes out with his machete and a bat,
throws them in the trunk and peels out of there, 
saying if she shows up to call him.

ummmm, yeah, but, wait!

After I phone the police again and was like what is the hold up???
The lady said when officer Noel found her,
she said she was fine,
he said he was told to find her, suicide watch or something.
Tina said to him, hey, do I look like I am going to commit suicide?
I am out on a run buddy,
 I am fine, just running back home.

Anyway, very long stressful story short,
Christi went and picked her up.
She shows up saying she had a magnificent run of 9 miles.
D comes speeding back down the street at a break neck pace,
flying into the driveway.

We all stood there feeling slightly awkward....
at least that is how C and I felt....
well I did anyway.
We went into the house so I could gather Cauley,
she had had a lovely time.

Then we drove home.
I was freezing from being sopping wet,  
so I took a shower.
I got a text from Christi after my shower.

"Ok. We're not idiots, right?!"
me - I'm not sure.
me- Debatable...

We have discussed new running rules that we will 
be implementing.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I'm laughing and crying at the same time. What a morning. What a run.. What friends I have. I love reading this from your point of view and thinking where my brain was through all this. Derek is starting to recover VERY slowly. I may be wearing a tracking device every time I leave the house soon:(

HB said...

WHAT the HECK??? I don't feel like your story is quite complete. Why did D take off w/a bat. Did you see Tina before you left her house? Where was she? What happened to her? Did she take a different route? (Tina feel free to answer yourself) That is a very strange story...I am not satisfied...well, except that Tina is all good. Glad it worked out.

Melissa said...

I know HB - I feel that way myself.

No idea why D took off w/ a machete and bat, he was super upset, just incase someone got in his way he wanted to be prepared I suppose.

If I understand your next question, yes, we started out w/ Tina, we left her house all three of us together. We spoke w/ her at the first switch back, the second switch back to check in with her we could not find her.

No one left the trail. Which is what K will not let drop, he says there is no possible way that someone did not leave the trail. Christi and I did not, Tina did not....so who left the trail? How did we miss each other? This is the unsolved portion of the story. Maybe we will never know.

She was running, that is where she was, at one point she did run behind this particular church, which we think must have been where she was when we drove over the causeway looking for her. It was just a flute that we kept missing her at every turn.

In the end, we will be changing the way we run, tightening security, running with phones, etc.

Anonymous said...

fyi.. I'm 5'3" incase I ever go missing again but thanks for the extra couple of inches:) I just ready your comment to HB. There is NO way I was behind the church when you were driving over the causeway. That wouldn't even make sense. I went behind the church to go onto the causeway. You all must have gone to the light. It is the only way we could have missed each other. By the time you got back with your car I probably was down by the running store looking for you all. And HB my husband took off with the bat because he was going to beat the crap out of the man that took me:)

Anonymous said...

For the record my side of the story is much less dramatic till the cop found me running down the road. For the most part I thought that M and C just got too far ahead of me. I thought I would run into them at any time. Towards the end I started to realize that somehow we missed each other but still not too concerned. It wasn't until the cop stopped me and told me he was sent to locate a woman in my description and that "there was a lot of people at my house worried about me" that I began to see the problem. He said he was sure what was going on but he had to keep me because I might be a suicide threat! WHAT the heck? The whole thing was CRAZY.

HB said...

WOW - what a crazy experience.

T - I have to say it is both nuts and so super sweet that your husband was willing to hack someone up on your behalf - High five him for me. I just keep picturing him going after that cop who was on suicide watch...:)

I am sure it is super easy now to look back and see how there were overreactions and hysterics...but what if...better safe than sorry!!

Glad you all are going to run with phones from now on...lots of good reasons to do that.

HB

Christi said...

I have anxiety again just reading your post..bahhahahah! Oh the stories we have. I hope D read this so he can understand what was going through our crazy little brains.