Not Alone Anymore (Chapter 28)

A Hungry Morning and a Growing To-Do List

Bloody hell, George was now being shared in the thousands; this new reward was really working. Dogs fed and kettle on, that’s a lie. I always have a cup of tea first before feeding the dogs, as it takes me a while to work out who I am and what day it is.

This was the first morning that I was actually hungry, and there was nothing to eat. Bloody nothing, I wonder why when you know that there is absolutely nothing to eat that you actually check the cupboards more than once, you even stare inside the fridge.

As I sat outside with the dogs, I began writing a list of what needed doing today as one thing I was certain of was not letting our Julie down, she was organizing this search, and I needed to be prepared.

Collect all the new posters from the One Stop Shop.

Buy a red marker pen and white stickers and change all posters (oh my god, that is going to take hours).

Petrol, I need petrol.

Food, I need food.

Clean the house; it stinks.

Errands and Messages

As I was writing my list, I looked over at my once blue pool and my once beautiful garden. It’s strange as I didn’t feel sad. All I could think was, wow, I am going to be busy when we find George.

It was now 10am, and I was in the One-Stop-Shop waiting for the last few posters to be printed. Claudia then messaged to say she was off to check 2 dead bodies, and then another message came through of a dead dog near las delicious, a housing estate not too far away for me to go right now. Think think think…. Oh yes, Elliot lives near there, so I messaged him. “On it,” he replied. I was now getting rather good at asking for help, so maybe I could ask for my house to be cleaned……… No, don’t worry, I never asked.

I was now home with some shopping, my posters and red marker pen and stickers. I decided to go walking with the dogs as I knew that tomorrow they would be shut in for a good few hours. Back pack filled with goodies, not forgetting a couple of cans of beer and off we went, we walked I whistled and every hour we sat and I checked my phone.

Support from Strangers

It was around 4pm, and I was sitting on a rock when I received a message from Irene; it simply said: “We are not alone now.” This was so true as for the first time, I actually felt comfortable. I wasn’t alone; I had my boys, I had all my friends, I had my family, and I had more strangers supporting and helping me that I actually felt extremely blessed.

It was starting to get dark, so we headed home. I decided to light the fire as I knew my next daunting task was to change all the old posters, Claudia had paid for them, and there wasn’t a chance in hell that I was going to waste a single one of them.

The Poster Challenge

I have always admired factory workers, not because my mother once worked in the parker pen factory, yet because I can’t do it myself. I go numb with the thought of doing the same thing for hours. If I have to paint a wall and trust me, I have painted a wall, a very large wall; I have to paint in sections and start from the top, then do a bit to the left, a bit to the right, a bit on the bottom and basically the odd square until it all meets up. So, with the daunting realism of changing all the posters, I had to put them in piles of 20, and then I timed myself. Noooooooo, it’s going to take me 5 hours, oh my god. So, I poured my glass of wine and sat on the rug near the fire, and I started. I decided to do half an hour and then reward myself with something. “A glass of wine would work,” I told myself.

A Generous Offer

Halfway through, I stopped and went upstairs to the computer to write a facebook post:

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT”

An amazing lady has just offered 500 EUROS for the safe return of my George. This is seriously amazing, kind and extremely generous. Especially as I have never had the pleasure of meeting her. So now, for any information leading to the safe return of George, 100% total discretion is guaranteed.

500 EUROS Christine
And
500 EUROS Caroline

“GEORGE, WE WILL FIND YOU, DARLING.”

I added the photo of George and me, as just writing for some reason doesn’t get as many shares.

Late Night Work

Next, I went downstairs and decided to put all the white stickers over the number 5 first as this might be quicker; it obviously wasn’t yet I had to change my strategy. Then I started writing just the number 1 on all the stickers, then I decided last to add all the zeros.

I then took a photo of my posters laying on the rug. The first poster had 500 EUROS, the next poster had the white sticker, and the last poster had 1000 EUROS written on it. This was for another Facebook post, and it simply had the words: “Thank you, Caroline xxxx.”

Again this was kind of cringe, yet it so needed to be done, I had to keep George’s posts alive. There it was again: “Shared for Mr George.”

Yes, yes, yes, all posters complete. I carefully put them in my ruck sack with my maps, I had stickers, pens and I felt so ready.

Stormy Night

As I went upstairs to clean my teeth, I shouted last wee-wees and let the dogs out. I then piled the fire up with wood and snuggled on the sofa. I fell asleep within seconds. Yet it seemed like seconds later, that it was 5am. The noise of the storm had woken me and all the boys; Jeremy was shaking and trying to actually enter my complete body. Well, that’s it then; no one will turn up for the search.

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