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- A woman is missing. No one knows where she went or what happened. Periodically throughout the day I check online to see if there are any updates, if she's been found. The layer of ice over the river is melting - have they found her there? Anything could have happened, any number of things, some statistically more likely than others. Maybe - probably not, but maybe - she slipped out of her house in the middle of the night to meet a lover who had driven slowly up the side street, lights off, in his El Camino, and they are well on their way to Mexico at this point, or maybe they're there right now, on the beach. She wore a long blue dress with yellow sunflowers on it and a straw hat - things that were at the back of the closet and wouldn't be noticed, so it might appear she didn't take anything with her. This fleeing has been in the works for months, even years, but there is no trace of it because it was arranged on paper, the lovers corresponding by mail, burning the letters and dropping the ashes in the toilet after reading. The last letter, sent sometime in November, held the final details - meet me at 3:30 in the morning, six weeks from now. Tell no one. Bring only what you'll need for the beach, and we'll finally be together.
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