Another odd time. Something happened last night. And I'm not sure what.

I suppose I should start from the beginning. I was online on Delphi last night. Not sure about the time, but in considering other things, I wish I were sure about it now. Faith came on. I sent her a few messages before getting a response. She then replied that she couldn't talk, would talk to me later, and signed off before I could say much of anything. She mentioned that there were lots of eyes. I think her sister Lee Ann was there with her children. I'm not sure.

So I tarried online for awhile afterward and talked to a few people. I honestly can't remember whether I ever got offline or not, but later, when I was online, Faith came on again. At the time I was in a room with a lady named Marti. Faith made a sent a few messages and said that she was leaving. I protested and got her into a room, where we talked for a bit, although we were incessantly interrupted by line noise and she was “punted” offline several times.

Then she switched lines. So we were talking again. And were getting rather into the conversation when, suddenly, Faith goes offline. So, citing what had already happened a few times, I decided to wait a while to see if she came back on. She never did. She went off at around 12:40 and I waited until 1:00 before going offline myself.

By this time I was getting a bit worried, knowing what I know about Paul and the incident last week. But rather than jump to conclusions, I decided to wait until at least 1:30 before I did or tried anything, figuring that she would call if everything was alright.

Well...

She never called. So I called Patty. Poor Patty. I talked to John, her husband, and told him my concerns, and he woke up Patty, who then called Faith. Patty said that Faith was fine, and said that she was fine, but she also pointed out the Paul picked up the extension and Faith asked Patty to say hello so he would know who it was. Faith then said she would call. Patty called back and told me this. By this time, it was about 1:40. I waited until 2:00. She never called. I went and cleaned up the cafe. She never called. And I'm sitting here now ... full of ideas and suspicions and fears, and I know that she won't call.

So that, in a nutshell, is why I'm writing. I can't honestly say, as I'm sitting here, that my fears are of Faith's safety. I think the physical danger has passed. What touches me now are my own doubts and fears. About her. About her feelings for me. About the future. Something about last night didn't add up. And I'm a bit disturbed that I'm even analyzing it. There shouldn't be anything there to analyze.

Faith told Patty that the reason she went offline was that their transformer had been knocked out, presumably in a storm. But that has nothing to do with the phone lines. Phone lines run on their own power. If it was nothing more than that, why didn't she call me? She would have known I was worrying. If this scenario is what happened, surely she would have let me know that she was alright.

The other possibility ...

Paul snuck up on her again. That's possible. If he had, she would have had to gone offline very quickly. And if they had had an argument, then that might explain why she would lie to Patty, as Patty does tend to get unnerved very easily. Possibly she was just trying to get Patty out of the way. This would also explain what Paul was doing up.

Jesus. I just don't know. All I can do now is go to bed. There will be no answers tonight. And I am adrift. With my fears. Which I hope are unfounded.