Now that daylight savings has ended, my shift ended in the dark. The light outside the library, covered with cobwebs which needed sweeping off, was illuminated. Timmy ambled in underneath it, then passed through the automatic doors, which I hadn’t bothered to switch shut.
“Hello, Nina,” he greeted me, in the same measured voice he used when he was speaking to us during the support group meetings. “Are you staying for the meeting tonight?”
“Yes.” I nodded my head. “Mitchell still isn’t back yet.”
Dropping his gaze, Timmy bobbed his head once. He ambled over, wordlessly, to the discrete stacks of eight and nine chairs each in the corner, then laid them out into a rough circle. There were enough for about seventeen of us. I never would have imagined that there were that many people with missing loved ones. Even more extraordinary was that I was now among them, here on my own, turning to others with more wisdom than me. I heard the automatic doors whir open. Clementine stepped in, the woman from Manly, whose fiancé had disappeared.
The younger sister of missing Sydney man Mitchell del Reyan, Nina del Reyan lives on Dharug land in western Sydney. She has recently commenced a teaching degree at Macquarie University. Nina loves her family and friends and is deeply committed to finding answers and justice for the families of missing people.
Abbey Sim is the founder of Huldah Media. She is a creative writing, law and theology student who lives on the lands of the Dharug people in Sydney, Australia. Abbey desires to explore themes of hope, love and longing through her storytelling. She is the author of 'Shadow' and 'From the Wild'.