Imagine making a phone call one afternoon to a best-friend cousin. Since you were small, you’ve shared everything: food, stories, adventures, dreams. One day, you call him: the next, he calls you. And it’s been this way for over thirty years.

            But this day, even though you’ve called at four-thirty, the designated time when both of you are generally free, he doesn’t answer. You are frustrated, but decide to leave a voice message. Except that his box is full.

            That’s never, ever happened before.

            You can’t just hop in your car and drive to his apartment because you live in California and he lives in West Virginia.

            You don’t have numbers for any of his friends: in fact, you’ve never met them since you’ve never had the time to fly there.

            Your cousin seems to have disappeared, something completely unheard of.

            Your task is to write a story in which a character disappears. Begin by establishing the character’s normal day. What she does, where she goes, who her friends are.

            Readers need this so that the fact of the disappearance is shocking.

            Have fun with this one.