On their skin, in their hair and in their mature eyes
She had started doing a writing course and an aquagym course. She had ventured into the writing course slowly and with a good measure of scepticism that later gave way to the pleasant discovery of a part of herself. She got to the point of looking forward to lessons like a child jumping and rolling around in the world out there, after having watched it at length from a rotating stool. Aquagym really was as fun as they said and like they said, it gave the desired results in a very short time, and what’s more, without the closed-in sweaty smell you breathe in gyms, you live better and longer, she added.
She was a sophisticated lady who knew how to look good with the tricks that only experience can teach. She could tie her hair up without becoming older, she could choose clothes for herself and for her friends with a keen and meticulous eye. With the skill of a first-class shooter in the clothing sector, she stared at the clumsy and chubby body in front of her, then said to her friend, come on relax, you just need to lose weight, weight is accumulated anger, you just have to get rid of it. She didn’t believe in this foolishness, frames of mind don’t go anywhere and they stay where they are, she had heard it on TV and with a small smile to herself, she had spouted it out to her friends in need of incentives and change. 
At the end of a busy afternoon, judging from her diary, she didn’t go home. She didn’t go home all night and not the day after either. Everyone had seen her or met her that afternoon but she hadn’t stopped with anyone, nor had she given any explanations. She had marked a dentist appointment for 5 in the afternoon, which the dentist confirmed without adding any details; it had been a busy week for the surgery and they hadn’t noticed much, apart from the appointment itself, of course. Then there was the aquagym lesson she went to and there too, her course mates said few things and things that were already known, except for that she had left Friday’s gaming table for no reason. She had also gone to the supermarket because the young cashier had caught a glimpse of her; they had known each other for a long time and in the routine of repeated gestures and words, they had connected.
The officer at the missing persons office at the police station wasn’t like a doctor called to give the final verdict, he presented the state of things as it was. He had seen too many situations deteriorate from hour to hour to give hope and put gimmicks on his desk. His wife was officially missing, now he just needed to contact the hospitals, talk to them one by one. I don’t think, said the husband, that anything like that has happened to her. When she crosses the road she’s always very careful and she’s very healthy, she does aquagym, I told you.
Yes, alright, but that’s of little importance, said the police officer, accidents and sudden illnesses can happen, trust me, they can happen to anyone.
The husband turned his gaze away from the police officer to the desk and felt decidedly better. As well as the screen and a piece of keyboard, he saw folders with laces and layers and layers of paper, all things he hadn’t seen in a long time and that he didn’t think were still around. He went home by bus, scrutinising the passers-by. The women he came across all had something that didn’t belong to them, on their skin, in their hair and in their mature eyes.