#sp:goldie

[godlyborn]

* * * * * *

ONE WEEK EARLIER

“Willow, Willow, calm down,” Goldie said, answering her phone to her frantic youngest sister, early that morning. She knew that back home in Vermont it was three hours later and her siblings were all getting through their work on the berry farm and in the apple orchard that day, while Goldie was just waking up after a long night on working on her newest album. Goldie ran her hand through her hair, her sister too hard to understand this early in the morning, with her quick words and jumbled sentences, but the tone of her voice had an urgency in it, one of which that scared Goldie. 

Willow kept talking, her rambles still misunderstood, words that Goldie could only point out somewhat like “River” and “Bees” and “Weird”. Marigold had heard a voice in the background also telling Willow to speak slower, a voice she recognized as their other sibling, Bear. 

Hearing Bear gave Goldie an out from trying to decipher her youngest sister before coffee. “Willow, put Bear on please,” Goldie said, stopping the other, mid-sentence. There were murmurs between the two youngest, before a loud huff from Willow and then Bear was on the phone. 

“Goldie?” Bear said, as if he had expected it to be someone else. While Bear was close and open with the Evans’ siblings, they still had a level of anxiety, especially over the phone. She knew he hated not being prepared for it, but she also knew he'd make exceptions for her and their other siblings. 

“Okay, now what’s going on, I could not understand Willow, like at all,” Goldie told them. 

“River’s missing,” Bear said bluntly, not daring to exaggerate anything like Willow would’ve. “He was acting really weird this morning and he just left. We thought that he was just getting an early start on the bees, but when Reed went to go get him for lunch, he was no where to be found.” 

Goldie’s heart dropped at the news, and for a moment, time slowed. She knew that was out of character for River, he always took care of the bees, the bees were basically his children. She took a moment to look for anything that mentioned what River was going to be up to today, but she came up with nothing but a series of memes (mostly from her) between them from late the night before. 

Goldie must’ve been silent for longer than intended because there was a hesitant, but nervous, “Gold?” that came from the other line. 

She closed her eyes. One breath: focus. Two breaths: go. A technique she did often before shows. Then she finally spoke, “How long ago was this?” 

“Early this morning, Willow had to wake him up, and we haven’t seen him since, and he’s not answering anyone’s calls or texts. Has he texted you? He always texts you more.” 

Goldie shook her head, then remembering they wer eon the phone and Bear couldn’t see her. “No,” she said, and then optimistically said, “but he knows I was up late last night and figured I was still asleep. Okay?” Goldie tried her best to reassure Bear. It was times like these she hated to be so far away from her family. “We shouldn’t panic, tell Willow to go pick some strawberries or something. I’m going to try to get a hold of him, maybe he had something to do this morning and just forgot to say something. If we don’t hear back by tomorrow morning, then we’ll panic, okay?”

There was silence on the other end, and then finally, Bear responded with, “Okay.”

“I’m going to hang up now, okay?”

Pause. “Okay.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

With that Goldie hung up the phone. She stood in the silence for a minute, trying herself not to panic about her older brother. She dialed River’s phone number, and it went to voicemail. She dialled again and again and again. She let out a groan, before finally resorting to leaving voicemails:

“Bitch, where the fuck are you?!”

“River, answer the Gods damn phone before I sell your bees!”

“I’m going to fly home now and do it!”

“RIVER!”

As she went on, tears started to well up in her eyes, and the angry voicemails turned into tearfilled ones.

“River, please answer your phone, please tell us where you are.”

“I won’t sell you bees, I’m sorry, just please answer one of us.”

She then resorted to going to her girlfriend’s apartment, maybe she had heard from River. She let herself in with her key. It was late morning now, and it seemed like Alexa was still in her room. She knocked before opening the door, tears already still running down her face. “Lex, River’s missing, no one kno—” she stopped mid-sentence when she heard Alexa curse and Goldie’s eyes settled on the woman naked in the bed next to her. Goldie was in shock for a moment before going, “I’m sorry, I…” Goldie turned to leave the room.

Alexa jumped up, “Goldie, wait!” she called as Goldie left the room, closing the door behind her. Goldie stood outside the door for a moment, trying to figure out what just happened, for a moment she forgot why she was even here in the first place.

One breath: focus. Two breaths: go. Goldie remembered the more important task in front of her, her brother. She had to focus on River, no matter how many pieces her heart was shattering into. Goldie started her way toward the door just as Alexa ran after her. “Goldie, wait… what happened with River?” she asked.

Goldie shook her head. “I’m not doing this with you, not right now,” she said. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry,” Alexa begged, knowing that Goldie would’ve forgave her, would’ve worked things out, but Goldie was focused. Her world was falling apart, and Goldie didn’t care about the part of her world with Alexa, she worried about the part with her brother, with her family. Goldie realized that the person she needed in this second was River. 

“Alexa, stop,” Goldie said with a harsh tone to signal she couldn’t handle any fights or apologies. Maybe she should’ve been yelling, crying, anything, but Goldie felt numb, devoid of emotions over what just happened, at least with Alexa standing in front of her.  “I need to find my brother. Please… just don’t say anything else. Please don’t talk to me.” 

“Goldie… please,” she begged. Marigold didn’t answer, instead she left the apartment, walking at a quicker pace as she got closer and closer to her car. When Goldie started driving, she found herself not even heading back to her apartment, rather just driving. She had to create a plan, and she pulled into a parking lot. She turned off her car, slamming her hands on her wheel, as her emotions rushing toward her all at once. Tears flew steadily down her cheeks. She tried her brother’s phone again:

“River, please answer your phone.”

Another moment before she called again, crying even harder.

“Riv, Alexa cheated on me, I need you, please call me back.”

She waited again, no answer or call back coming from River. She tried one last time. 

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

Voicemail.

Goldie let out a sigh through the phone, putting her head on the wheel. “River, please, just let me know if you’re alright. Please.”

The next person that Goldie called wasn’t River, but her eldest brother, Forest. “Goldie? Did you hear from him?” he asked, answering on the first ring. Goldie let out a sob through the phone. Forest and River were always the only two who could see Goldie break down like this, after keeping a level head for most. “Goldie you’re scaring me.”

“No, I haven’t,” she finally said in a mid-sob gasp. “I’m coming home.”

“Goldie… are you okay?” 

“I’ll tell you when I get home. I’m fine. I’ll keep trying to get a hold of River. Let me know if you hear anything. “

“Okay, love you.”

“Love you too.” She hung up the phone, and sitting in the parking lot she booked a plane ticket home and texted Alexa.

To Baby 😊❤️😍❤️ I’m sorry. I can’t do this. Please don’t contact me.

With that, she muted Alexa’s notifications so she couldn’t see any answer to her, at least not right now. Maybe tomorrow, but right now, her thoughts were on River and flying back to Vermont.