Disappearances by Linda Byler

reassurance.
    “Dat?”
    “Hmm?”
    She had his attention; his eyes were kindly upon her.
    “Does Anna even weigh a hundred pounds anymore?” she asked, her eyes giving away her fear.
    Mam looked startled.
    “Oh, of course. She isn’t that thin.”
    “Do you realize she is sick, Mam? She needs help. Someone should at least talk to her about her … Mam, now come on, you can’t tell me otherwise. She is definitely going through an eating disorder.”
    Dat burst out, quite uncharacteristically.
    “That eating disorder you’re talking about is named Neil Hershberger!”
    Reuben was eating his second slice of chocolate layer cake, soaked with milk and shoveled with a small tablespoon into his mouth, which was opened wide to accommodate the entire mountain of cake. He chewed, swallowed, and shook his head up and down.
    “That’s for sure.”
    “Anna is completely obsessed with him,” Dat continued. “I hardly know how to handle it. I’m afraid if we get too strict, she’ll do something … completely crazy.”
    Mark nodded.
    Sadie shook her head. “She’s way, way too thin. Do you think she’d come live with us for awhile? I think I could at least get her to talk to me. She’s pathetic.”
    “I’ll come live with you,” Reuben shouted, waving his empty spoon before digging into the soaked cake for another round.
    “Nothing wrong with you!” Mark said, laughing.
    “Nothing cake can’t fix,” Reuben grinned.
    After much coaxing, begging, pleading, and numerous phone calls, plus the promise of going to the mall in Chesterfield, Anna relented a few weeks later and agreed to stay with Sadie for awhile. Sadie welcomed her with open arms, fighting tears as she gathered the skeletal frame against her body. Leah and Rebekah accompanied her, turning the day into a sisters’ day, helping Sadie houseclean the kitchen cupboards. Leah was dating Kevin, with plans of becoming his wife in the future, and Rebekah had just begun dating Jonathan Mast, a shy personable young man of 22.
    As Sadie knew she would, Anna stayed in the background, listening, very rarely taking part in the conversation. She ate almost nothing all day, maybe a half of an apple, a few bites of cracker, a few sips of water. When Leah and Rebekah hitched up Charlie, waving their way out the driveway, Anna turned to Sadie.
    “So start right away. Start lecturing me. That’s all you want me here for, anyway. You want me to tell you something, Sadie? I’m just here because Neil can pick me up in his car. Mam and Dat won’t let me go away with him. I sneak out. So get used to it, sister dear. I’m going away with Neil.”
    If Sadie would have acted on impulse, she would have smacked her sister’s sneering face. Sadie’s anger boiled, but not to the point she couldn’t control it. So to bide her time, she kicked at a pile of dirt, absentmindedly extracting small rocks.
    “What makes you think I’m going to lecture you, other than your guilt?” she ground out evenly.
    “I’m not guilty,” Anna said, pushing one hip out impatiently.
    “Okay.”
    Sadie pretended to lose interest, changed the subject, and walked back to the house. Chattering about mundane subjects now, she put clean sheets on the guest bed upstairs, helping Anna hang her brilliant array of dresses in the closet. They did chores together and fed Wolf, who Anna seemed to bond with immediately, throwing a small stick for him to retrieve over and over, a thin color showing in her wan cheek from the exertion.
    “He is so cool!” she cried, her eyes alight.
    Quite clearly Anna adored Mark, his dog, his horses, his barn, everything. That was a good thing, Sadie decided, keeping her happy to be here. She even got Anna to try on the trousers she always wore to ride Paris. When Anna couldn’t walk in them without losing them to a puddle around her ankles, Sadie looked genuinely surprised.
    “But … ”
    She looked up, floundering now.
    “You’re not fat,” she said, completely