Lost Time

The Talk

My feet were dangling from the roof of our apartment complex. Below there was a 50 meter drop, and then asphalt. No one would survive a fall that high, that’s for sure, but sitting so close to demise was the only thing that gave me peace. I wasn’t suicidal, not really. But knowing I was in control of whether or not my life would continue made me feel comfortable inside. I didn’t have any control over anything else. My parents were strict about everything you can imagine. I had to be home right after school, could only see friends if my parents drove me there, and only if they approved of the other parents and trusted them not to let me go anywhere. Maybe this was reasonable when I was still a child, but at 16, it was ridiculous. How are you supposed to make connections and have a social life when you’re known to the class as the one who isn’t allowed to do anything. Most of my time was spent browsing the internet and reading books. They had, of course, blocked what websites I could visit, but that didn’t take long to break through once I became older, not that my parents would ever hear me admit to that.

Yesterday my family, including my grandparents, sat down with me to have a “talk”. The gist of it was that, when I was a child, around four years old, me and my parents had gone to an amusement park, one of those portable ones that stops in whatever city is in their path. Apparently, while they were playing one of those “shooting bucket” games to win me a teddy bear, I had disappeared from them. They say I was gone for multiple minutes, and they had just gotten park security involved when I appeared from behind one of the rides. Supposedly, this was the reason for why they were so strict with me. So that something like that would never happen again. I nodded quietly to them and said that I understood, then stood up and left for my room. 

Bullshit. For years they had run my home like a miniature prison, my life being decided for me like I was property. It had always annoyed me, but I had learned to keep my mouth shut as nothing had any effect on them. And now they expect me to believe that all of this was simply because I disappeared for a few minutes? I know parents overreact when their child is in danger, but according to them I was fine, and it was just a few minutes, in a park full of people. I saw two possibilities in front of me. Either, they were worried I was going to hate them when I turned 18 and move out, or, they were telling the truth, but left out some crucial details. I sat down next to my computer, and started googling, making sure they didn’t see what I was doing. I tried multiple combinations of keywords: our family name, theme park, the year I turned four, nothing. I remembered that we moved when I was 5, cause my grandparents would often talk about how they missed the house we had there, and how lovely the neighborhood was. I couldn’t remember anything from back then, but I did remember the name of the town, Reneeville. Worth a shot.

I typed in “Reneeville, 2010, Sacks, Theme Park”. The entire results page filled up with the same story, a young girl who was kidnapped from a theme park for two days before being found alone in the woods, naked and bruised up, unable to speak or move. I was in shock. There were articles from papers all over the nation, and I eventually found a youtube video interviewing the parents about it. There was my mom and dad, pleading people to help them look for me before it was too late. It took me a few minutes to actually believe what I saw. I had no memory of it at all, in fact, I can’t remember anything from before the age of 6. Doing more research, I found that someone went to jail as a result. Keith Lander, convicted for abduction of an underage child. Imprisoned for 20 years. I searched frivolously for more information, but all I could find is the statement from the prosecutors, that read “Although the child was found naked and bruised, the physical evidence in this case is extraordinarily small, and the suspect has denied each and every accusation we have made towards him. Coupled together with the penalty for underage abduction, we have decided to drop all other charges at this time”. 

I became furious, someone had stolen my whole life, and they had nothing to say about it. I needed answers. I thought about asking my parents for a second, but halted myself once I caught up to my own thoughts. Even if they didn’t vehemently deny it, they still wouldn’t know what had happened to me during those two days. No one did, except for one, Keith Lander.