There was a tugging at my blanket which I was trying 
to ignore.  I rolled over and pulled the blankets with me.  
The tugging stopped just long enough for me to start to 
fade back out, but something cold and wet on my arm 
suddenly jerked me to full consciousness.
	“What the…“ I half yelled as I looked around.  This 
wasn’t the room I had when I went to sleep.  And I KNOW 
that goat wasn’t here last night.  It looked like I’d 
fallen asleep in the barn.  Except my family didn’t have a 
barn.  We lived in the suburbs, where no one had a goat.  
Said goat had given up on my blanket and was now pulling 
straw out of my mattress, if you could call it that.  “Hey, 
stop that!  Get out of here!” The goat refused at first so 
I swiped at it’s nose landing one blow squarely on the tip 
causing it to shake it’s head and with just a bit more 
shooing wandered off on it’s own.  I checked the bed to see 
if the goat had done any damage, but the mattress seemed 
fine.  The mattress was lumpy and stuffed with straw and 
feathers.  It was suspended on a frame by ropes that you 
could feel digging into you through the mattress.  It 
wasn’t altogether uncomfortable, yet it wasn’t the bed I 
had at home.
	*home* I remembered.  Where was I?  How did I get here?  
I tried to think of what had happened last night and came 
up empty.  As far as I could remember, I went to sleep, 
same as always, in my own bed.  *Then how did I get here?*
	Looking around, I still wasn’t sure where here was.  
The rest of the room looked well lived in, yet well kept up.  
Which was odd since everything looked like it should be an 
antique.  There was the bed, and a box of carved wood and 
cast lead figurines, and a couple changes of clothes, a bow 
with a couple arrows, and a knife laying next to some kinda 
carving.  It looked like a boy lived here.  I would have 
said used to live here but there wasn’t enough dust on 
anything, it all looked recently used.
	“Richard!” someone called me.  “Richard you lazy boy, 
get out here!”  The voice called to me from another room on 
the other side of a cloth “door” that hung in the doorway.  
“Richard, get in here this instant!”  The woman’s voice was 
even angrier now.  Luckily I’d apparently fallen asleep in 
my clothes… no, NOT my clothes, but clothes nonetheless.  I 
tossed the blanket aside and bravely dashed out the door 
uncertain of what he’d meet on the other side.

	“Richard you twit, what have you been doing?  You 
where supposed to take the flock out HOURS ago.  They darn 
near got into everything.  You go get your stuff and take 
them out to the pasture before I tan your hide.”
	*The women seemed to know me* I figured out cleverly.  
“Huh?” Was the best response I could come up with at the 
time.
	“Get going!  Or so help me I’ll tan your bottom so 
good…  don’t think you’re too big for me to, I’ll do it 
mister!”  She threatened shaking a spoon still dripping 
with whatever was in the pot she was stirring.  It looked 
like gumbo, but smelled like stew.  The pot looked more 
like a cauldron, you know, like what a witch would have.
      I was still trying to figure if the white thing on her 
spoon was a bubble or eye of newt when a little boy dressed 
similarly to myself came running up beside me chanting, 
“Can I, Can I, Can I.”  The boy seemed excited about 
something but I didn’t know what.
      “Of course you can, but you’ll need your brother to go 
with you still.”
      “Aw, mom! Do I have to?”  Then I figured it out.  *She 
thinks he is my brother, and he is her son… so she’s my 
mother?* It was so absurd.  She looked nothing like my 
mother, and I had never even had a brother.
      I couldn’t take it, I had to say something, which I 
suppose was long past due since they where giving me 
strange looks.  “Who are you?  Why do you think I’m your 
son?  Where am I?  What is this place?  Why did I wake up 
with a goat chewing on me?  What did you do to me?  Where 
are my clothes? Why did you bring me here? What do you want 
from me?  I’m not doing ANYTHING until I hear from my 
parents!  You TOUCH me and I’m calling the cops!”
      The looks now went from strange, to completely freaked 
out, then the woman’s settled on angry leaning towards 
furious. The boy backed away sensing what was coming.  The 
string of colorful expletives alone would have stunned me 
if not for years of hearing it in movies (ah, war movies, 
there is so much you can teach us).  The physical side 
however caught me completely off guard and I scarcely 
blinked before the slaps began.  She was insanely strong 
for a woman, I wrestled and kicked but didn’t managed 
anything more than to get hit harder.  When she was done 
with me I crumpled on the ground and lay there awash in my 
pain.  I now could notice that I was crying, and my throat 
hurt from screaming.  I don’t know how long I lay there 
felling my skin prickle and burn and throb, but I was 
kicked out of it by “my mother”.  Her foot fell just below 
my ribs, knocking the air out of me.
      “Get up!   I can’t stand around all day babying you.” 
Then her foot dug into my abdomen, not so bad this time.  
      “Fine, don’t feel like getting up?  Joshua, take your 
brother to his room.  Looks like you’re going to be tending 
the sheep without him.”  The smaller boy picked me up, and 
I would have been impressed if I could think about anything 
other than how much I hurt.  My parents had never hit me 
like that.  Not even when I drove the car through the 
garage door by accident.  I didn’t even know what I did 
wrong this time.  But these people had kidnapped me, and 
where hitting me for no reason.  I didn’t want to give them 
anything to use against me, but still some part of me 
wanted to defy them, to try to get away, to tell someone 
what they where doing to me.  But for now I cried.  The boy 
dumped me on the bed, and left without a pause.  I was more 
or less alone now.  Very alone, my parents, my sister, my 
friends, my school, my baseball team… was I ever going to 
see them again?
      The tears flowed steadily until I didn’t think I could 
take it anymore, then I just fell asleep.
      
      “Richie? Hey, Richie, you ok?”  I rolled over and a 
small hand shook me a little.  “Richie, are you ok?”  The 
child got into the bed and sat on me and I knew it was 
useless to try to ignore him, especially as he was now 
yelling directly into my ear.
      “Get off me!  I’m awake! Get OFF!” I said with a final 
shove.
      “Mommy said you weren’t feeling well.  Are you sick?”  
the child said.  His hair was long and dirty, but was 
wearing what looked like a dress.  I finally decided he had 
to be a boy since a girl would never stand being that 
unclean, even one living in this barn like house.
      “No, I’m not sick.  What’s your name?” I said falling 
into the tone of voice people always seem to use when 
talking to little children.
      “I’m Gwen!  You know that!”
      “Where are your parents?”
      “Mommy’s in garden with baby.  Daddy’s gone into 
town.”  The little boy explained.  “Why you talking funny?”
      “Do you know why they brought me here?”
      “Mommy said you where sick.  That’s why she had Josh 
carry you back to your room.”
      “No, why am I here?  Why did your parents kidnap me?”
      “I don’t understand...  I’ll get mommy”
      “NO!  don’t!  stop, please..” I said grabbing his arm 
to stop him.  “please…  just talk to me some more.  Where 
are we?”
      “Your room, silly.  I think I should get mommy”
      “No, please…  I guess I’m not making much sense… but I 
don’t know any of this” I said gesturing around the room.  
“I don’t even recognize you, or your mother.  I’ve never 
seen any of you before in my life!”
      “You don’t remember us?  How don’t you remember us?”
      “I don’t know ANY of you.  I’ve never seen ANY of you 
before in my life!  And I’d like to know how I got here!”
      “Josh carried you here, I told you already”
      “No, I mean, how I got into this house.  Why was I 
taken from my family?  How you got me out of my house and 
to here without waking me or my family up.  Oh god, they 
must be worried sick about me.  I had school this morning.  
Ok, so this isn’t all bad, at least I get to miss school.  
But still, why has your family kidnapped me”
      “I don’t understand... we’re your family.  You where 
here last night.  And no one woke us up last night.  Josh 
and I slept in the den all night.”
      “How long have you known me” I asked fearing what I 
had guessed.
      “You’re my mother, I’ve known you my whole life… and 
I’m THIS many years old” said the child holding up 5 
fingers.  
      I hear what I had kinda picked up from the way 
everyone was treating me.  And this kid was too young to be 
good enough of an actor to lie that convincingly.  I didn’t 
know what to do.  I looked at my hands gripping the blanket.  
They looked like the same old hands, but I suddenly 
realized how little one actually looks at the back of their 
hand.  I don’t think I knew them well enough to make a 
judgment.  The rest of my body looked as I’ve always 
remembered it, though perhaps a little dirtier than my 
mother would have ever let me get away with.  I felt my 
face, and it felt normal, though I don’t think I ever paid 
enough attention to how my face felt.  I still had the 
little mole on my right side…  and I finally took that as 
the sign that I was who I thought I was.  But then why did 
everyone think I was someone else?
      I looked back at the boy who was now looking more 
confused than ever, and maybe a little frightened.  To him 
his brother who he’d known his whole life was suddenly 
behaving strangely.  I felt some strange urge to calm the 
boy, “Its ok, I’m not crazy or anything… but, I’m not your 
brother.  There’s been some kinda mix up.  Someone’s made a 
mistake.  I’m not your brother.”  That seemed to set 
something off in the kid and he started to cry.  I tried 
calming him some more, but I couldn’t get him to listen 
until I finally told him that we’d go talk to his mother 
and we’d figure things out.  He was still crying as we 
headed out of my room, but at least he was quiet.
      
      The rest of the house looked pretty much the same as 
the room I’d woken up in.  Everything looked rough and hand 
made, and like it should have been made hundreds of years 
ago, yet was still being used today.  The floor was just 
bare dirt that had been packed hard by years of use.  I 
could tell by how far it sloped up to the wall that this 
place had been standing and inhabited for quite some time.
      I don’t know what I had expected outside, but it 
certainly wasn’t what I saw.  There where fields and fields 
of plowed earth.  It was a bit chilly still, but that was 
the least of my thoughts.  Looking back at the house from 
the outside, it was a little thing with a thatched roof.  
I’d never actually seen a thatched roof outside of a text 
book.  In real life the roof looked massive.  The apparent 
weight held me for a second before I realized that this 
shouldn’t be here.  Thatched roofs where a massive fire 
hazard not to mention an open invitation to pests.  Looking 
around, the rest of the scenery was just as wrong.  There 
where huge freshly plowed fields which had first grabbed my 
attention.  But there where also rolling rocky hills.  
There was a corral with a couple cows, another with pigs.  
Chickens pecked at the ground while geese pecked at the 
chickens, sending them running and flapping into another 
goose.  There was what looked like a barn too.  I couldn’t 
imagine where all this could be.  It didn’t look anything 
like Florida.
      Before I knew it, we’d reached a smaller section of 
plowed earth where the woman who thought she was my mother 
was working.  I hadn’t even noticed I was walking, I was so 
busy taking in all the unusual sights.  
      “So, you finally decided to wake up and give us all a 
hand.  Don’t think I’m not going to tell your father what 
you pulled this morning.  If you wanted to sleep in that 
badly you should have just said so.  That stupid stuff you 
said this morning didn’t impress anyone.”  Then she turned 
around and scraped at the ground with the spade in her 
hands, doing something but I couldn’t guess what.  I also 
realized what the strange thing on her back was, and why I 
was getting the feeling it was looking at me.  It was a 
baby, strapped to her back, and apparently giggling at the 
ride it was getting.
      The kid at my side spoke up breaking the brief silence 
before it could mature.  “Mommy, Richard says he’s not 
Richard” The seemingly innocent words set something off 
once more.  The woman threw the spade to the ground, but 
seemed to still be fairly calm when she turned around once 
more.
      “Richard, what, prêt ell, have you been telling your 
brother?”  Her voice was like a knife sliding along glass.
      “I… was just…   I think there has been some kind of a 
mistake.  You see, I’m not your son.  I don’t know who any 
of you are, but if you’ll kindly tell me where we are, I 
might be able to call my parents and we can get this 
straightened out… if you’d please.”
      “Oh what a relief!  Thank goodness you told us.  You 
can’t imagine my relief that you told us this.  To think 
that we have the wrong boy, that we have been caring for, 
and that I GAVE BIRTH to the wrong boy,”  at this point the 
sarcasm was thick enough to smother me, but she went on, 
“This is all going to be a GREAT relief to YOUR FATHER when 
he finds out his FIRST BORN SON is not REALLY his son at 
all..  he’s… what? Some…  some kinda, changeling or 
something I suppose.  Is that it?  Are you here telling us 
that you’re off to head back to your fairy kin to tell them 
all about how FOOLISH humans are?  HUH?  Is THAT it?  I 
swear, your father should have never taken you to that fair 
last summer.  Those people filled your heads with far too 
many fairytales, though it’s worse that you still believe 
them!  A boy your age, still listening to stories of 
goblins and unicorns.  I swear, I’m going to have a SERIOUS 
talk with your father about you when he gets home.”
      I didn’t really know what to say.  She hadn’t given me 
any time to respond to anything, even if I could have 
figured out a way to counter her words.  Finally words came, 
“Ma’am, I’m sorry.  I know I might look like and even sound 
like your son, but you have to believe me, I’m not him!  I 
can’t be.  My mother’s name is Grace, we live in ____ 
Florida, with my father, George, who’s a dental surgeon.  I 
am an only child aside from our dog, Annabel.  You’ve GOT 
to believe me, I’ve never seen any of you before in my 
life.”
      The woman threw down her spade and took a step at me. 
Knowing what was coming, again, I bravely coward a 
defensive position.  The woman looked taken aback.  Like 
he’d done something he shouldn’t have.  I closed my eyes 
and steeled myself for the beating.  I waited, feeling my 
skin prickle and tense, every small noise. Every breeze was 
her about to kick me.  I held my breath until my lungs 
burned…  but no beating came.  I was flinched when I felt 
her hand on my head.  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt 
you,” She said  as she pet my hair.  I looked up at her 
after blinking a bit to clear a stray tear from my eye so 
no one would see.  As I looked up at her face she placed a 
hand on my forehead.  “I don’t think you have a fever, 
and,” she rubbed my head one last time. “no knots, did you 
hit your head on anything?”  I shook my head.  Taking the 
baby off her back instructed, “Gwen, here, take your 
bothers inside, I’ll be right back with old Ms. Jenkins.”  
She handed the child the bundle and took off, holding her 
skirts as she jogged down the dirt path.  She’d seemed 
concerned.  I wasn’t sure what she saw, or what was wrong.  
And I was afraid of what was going to happen to me when she 
got back with Ms. Jenkins, who ever she was.
	“Richie, we’re supposed to go back inside!” the child 
said tugging on my pants.  I realized I had been staring 
down the road for some time…
	“Ok, you can lead the way.”   I said to the concerned 
child.
	“I thought you said you weren’t sick?”
	“I’m not.”
	“Then why is mommy getting Ms. Jenkins?  I didn’t 
think she’d been back since Bobby left.”
	“huh?  Where did she take him?”
	“Mommy wouldn’t say, but she said he wouldn’t come 
back again.  But sometimes I see him in that tree he liked 
to climb, but he’s gone by the time I get there, no matter 
how fast I run.  He always was faster than me, maybe one 
day I’ll be fast enough to catch him.”
	“And that was the only time you ever saw her?”  The 
child nodded.
	“Are you going to be going away too?  I don’t want you 
to go.  Please promise you won’t leave.”  
	“I’m not going…”  I was going to reassure him… but I 
DID want to leave.  I just wasn’t sure how to.  


      The poking and prodding and such where similar enough 
to what I had experienced from doctors that I figured 
that’s what she was… or thought she was.  It was very 
nervous that the time she treated someone from this family 
the patient died.  That was on my mind as she stuck a 
thermometer in my mouth and put her ear against my chest to 
listen to my heart and breathing I supposed.  After 
checking my reflexes and my eyes, she took out the 
thermometer, checked it, then pulled my mother into my room 
to talk.  The old lady’s bedside manor was not the most 
comforting.  She was quite and rough and blunt, but she 
gave off an air of wisdom.  It was like everything about 
her told you to trust her that she knew what she was doing 
and you wouldn’t like what would happen to you if you 
refused.  She’d asked me all sorts of questions about my 
name, my families names, where I was from, what day it was, 
what year it was… nothing I had to think too much about.  
	I busied myself with arranging myself in the 
unfamiliar clothes.  They where old and felt like they 
hadn’t been washed in a week.  But I wanted to cover myself, 
and these where the only thing I had.
	As I was figuring out how to lace up everything, the 
two women reentered the room.  The woman calling herself my 
mother looked like she was crying.  I don’t know why, but I 
wondered if I was dieing.  I felt fine.  But maybe these 
people had done something to me.  Or maybe I’m not the 
person they wanted to kidnap, and now they are going to 
have to kill me!
	The old woman gave me a look I didn’t understand then 
walked on out of the house.  Other woman went over to the 
pot over the fire for a few seconds, giving it a few quick 
stirs, carefully not looking at me.  It was obvious she 
didn’t want me to see her cry, but the sniffling and wiping 
at her eyes were easy tells.  After adjusting it over the 
fire and when she seemed satisfied that it was cooking 
properly.  She gave her eyes one last wipe, dried her hands 
on her apron and steeled herself to deal with me.
	“Richard, I’m sorry about how I treated you.  If I had 
known… I’m sorry, I didn’t know you couldn’t help it.  But 
I promise we’ll help you get your memory back.”
	“What?  I didn’t loose my memory, I know exactly who I 
am.  What I don’t know is who YOU people are and why you 
took me!”
	“You poor dear…  Ms. Jenkins told me all about what 
happened to you.  She said it’s rare but she told me of a 
man who ran away from his family and started a new life in 
a new town.  Claimed he was a merchant who’s caravan had 
been ambushed.  He ended up marring a woman there and 
living out half his life before his family found him and 
brought him back.  He held to his story for months, even 
with his family showing him things from his childhood and 
such.  But eventually he came around.  Told them about how 
one day he just woke up and he thought he was someone else.  
Ms. Jenkins says I should be lucky you didn’t runaway like 
that man did.”
	“But I KNOW who I am.  I’m not imagining thing! I-“
	“She told me that your memories would seem very real 
to you.”
	“Because they ARE real!  I don’t know what you people 
are trying to pull but it’s not going to work!”
	“We’re not trying to PULL anything”
	“Then why did you kidnap me?  Why have you taken me 
here!  I want to call my parents, I want to go home!”
	“To Florida?”
      “YES!”
      “I don’t know anywhere called that.  Neither does Ms. 
Jenkins.  No one does.  That place only exists in your 
head”
      “NO!  It’s real… Disney land, the everglades, Orlando…  
you know all this.”
      “I’m sorry, I don’t.  This may all seem real to you, 
but i…  I just with there was a way for me to help you.”
      “If you want to help me you’ll take me home- or at 
least let me call.”
      “Call, how?”
      “Ya, you don’t even have a phone.  What’s up with 
that?”
      “Phone?”
      “TELL me you’ve heard of phones… god, this place is-“
      “Leave the gods out of this.”  That took me a few 
seconds to work out.  But I figured it fit for someone who 
lived in a house like this.
      “At least tell me you’ve heard of electricity.”  The 
blank look was not encouraging.  “You people are totally 
whacko.”
      We stared at each other for a few seconds, both 
thinking the exact same thing, then I realized it and 
started laughing.  It was like all the tension and fear of 
the day came out in that laughter.  It must have been 
infectious because she joined in with a small chuckle of 
her own.
      The laughter ended abruptly when the door opened and a 
man who looked like he could break me in half with one hand 
came in.  The way he and the lady embraced convinced me 
that he had to be her husband.
      “Hey boy!  What, was Joshua telling me about you being 
sick? You look just fine to me.”
      “Honey, There’s something I need to tell you…  I 
brought Ms. Jenkins here to check him out, and-“
      “Don’t tell me you brought that old witch here again!  
Not after last time”
      “I know how you feel about her… but… John, you should 
have seen him… there was something not right with him.”
      “And what did that old bat tell you?  Just what you 
wanted to hear, I bet.”
      “What did you want me to do?  I’m sorry but I didn’t 
see any other way.”
      “And what supposedly is wrong with him?”
      “John…. He’s sitting right here…”
      “BOY!  Get out and give your brother a hand with the 
sheep, he’s got the herd scattered all over the place.”
      “But I don’t-“
      “NOW!”  And that was all for me.  I practically ran 
out the door.  Once outside, I wasn’t sure where to go.  
Looking around all I could see was fields and rocky hills.  
I figured the sheep wouldn’t be grazing in the freshly 
plowed fields, so I started to walk over to the rocky hill.  
On my way, I noted a wagon that wasn’t there before.  There 
were several burlap bags in the back.  I didn’t give them 
much notice as I walked.
      The ground was surprisingly forgiving on my bare feet.  
No one was wearing shoes and I hadn’t seen any in my room, 
though I hadn’t been given much time to look for them.  
Walking on the dirt and gravel was disturbing at first, but 
I quickly got used to it.  Carefully picking out my footing 
among the rocks and stiff grass.
      I was about a hundred yards away from it when one of 
the rocks raised it’s head, looking up at me.  I stood 
frozen for a second as the rock looked me over before 
resuming its grazing.  Looking around I saw that what I’d 
taken as a bunch of rocks, was really a heard of sheep, 
casually grazing at the coarse grass that sprung up amongst 
the real rocks.  
      “Richard? I thought you weren’t coming out here 
today.”
      “your father told me to come out and help you.”
      “you’re still holding to that ‘I’m not who you think I 
am’ thing then?”
      “I’m not ‘holding to’ anything.  I really don’t know 
who any of you people are.”
      “whatever, just help me get these sheep back over 
here.”
      “how do I do that?”
      “oh gods help me…”
      
      
      I was sitting on a rock after Joshua had given up with 
correcting the way I was herding the sheep.  I couldn’t see 
what was so different about what we where doing, but I 
guess the sheep could, and so could Joshua.
      The view from the rock was an impressive one.  From 
where I sat I could see out for miles, and it wasn’t 
encouraging.  There wasn’t a city, or a normal looking 
house without sight.  Only field after field with the 
occasional little dot of a house alongside it.  I all but 
gave up on the possibility of running to get help.  It was 
too far and there wasn’t a telephone or power line to be 
seen.  I supposed I could get to one of those houses before 
they found me, but what once I was there?  Where would I go 
from there?  Would they be any better than the people who 
have me now?  I didn’t know,  but I had to try, I had to 
make it back to my parents.  I decided then, as I watched 
Joshua tend to the sheep, to make a run for it as soon as 
the opportunity presented itself.
      I watched him fight the sheep as they wondered of, 
only to see two others wonder off.  It was kinda funny to 
watch, but my laughing didn’t help, though it made Joshua 
more upset.  He’d just gotten up to preemptively persuade a 
sheep to stay with the others, when a booming voice called 
for me from the house.  I fell off the rock landing on the 
inevitably pointy rock, or maybe a root, or a stick.  Maybe 
anything you land on unexpectedly is going to be pointy.  I 
was pondering that phenomena and rubbing the sore spot on 
my butt when a second call came up the hill from the house.  
This time it had a definite air of ‘get down here this 
instant’ even if all that was said was just my first name.  
I didn’t spend time pondering how parents are able to make 
your name mean so much.  Instead I just hoped down the hill 
as fast as I could without putting myself in danger of 
breaking my neck.  Even then I slipped a few times.
      By the time I reached the man who’d yelled my name my 
legs were bruised and probably bloody, my hand’s were 
defiantly bleeding.  I looked up at the man who I rightly 
assumed thought he was my father.  He didn’t resemble my 
father at all.  That man was about a 4 inches shorted but 
about 100 pounds more massive, and all of it muscle.
      “Your mother tells me you’ve had a very exciting 
morning.”
      “Yes sir.” I’d never called MY father sir, but this 
guy looked like someone you’d call sir, and I didn’t want 
to risk pissing him off.
      “I see… you got any idea how long this is gunna last?”
      “No sir”
      “In that case, go in and help your mother, you might 
as well make yourself useful, even if you don’t want to do 
any REAL work.”
      
	I’m not going to bore you with tales of my chores that 
day.  It was menial, and degrading.  I never thought I 
would want to have to do something simple like vacuum the 
carpet or even scrub a toilet.  I couldn’t see how any 
family could live like they did.  It furthered my resolve 
to escape as soon as possible.  That night I discovered 
that the boys slept in the main room of the house.  I 
probably could have snuck by them, but I was only going to 
get one chance at it, so I decided I’d make it good.  The 
house had no foundation, just a dirt floor, so all I had to 
do was dig a hole under the wall of my room.  Sounded easy 
but I knew to expect that things wouldn’t go as easy as 
planned.   Using a carving knife in the room, I loosened 
the earth until I could clear it away with my hands.  I 
started almost as soon as I was sent to bed and it took 
until far too late.  I managed to squeeze out as the sky 
just began to lighten in the east.  With nothing more than 
the clothes on my back I started running.  Keeping to 
whatever shadows I could find at first, then after I felt 
like I had gone far enough, I found a dirt road and 
followed on that.  I kept a hard pace and pushed myself 
more than I had ever in gym class.
	The sun rose and farmers and shepherds went about 
their business.  No one paid much attention to me.  I took 
to watching what they where doing as I slowly walked past.  
I’d chosen to walk to the south, figuring that I had to be 
north of Florida since it was hard to be anywhere else and 
stay in an English speaking country.
	About noon my stomach began to rumble and I regretted 
not eating more of that sickening, thick stew they had 
given me.  A couple spoonfuls and a piece of bread were not 
going to hold me for very long, I realized.  I began to 
think about turning into one of the farms and telling them 
everything that happened to me, but I was still too close, 
they might know that couple or even possibly condone what 
they had done.  There also wasn’t any sign of telephone or 
power lines.  Not even those little markers they stick in 
the ground to warn of underground cables.  I looked to be 
as far away from civilization as I could imagine.  

	The sun was starting to set when I decided I needed to 
find someplace for the night.  That place ended up being 
the next house I saw.  There was still no sign of 
electricity, but it was getting cold and my stomach was 
protesting too loudly for me to ignore.
	With much trepidation, I knocked on the door.  I 
didn’t know what to expect, they could have been nasty, 
they could have killed me, they could have enslaved me and 
kept me in a little cage where the only thing for me to do 
was to darn their clothes.  What actually happened was far 
worse.
	“Hello, Richard?  What are you doing here? Where’s 
your father?” a strange man I’d never seen before asked as 
he looked over my head for, presumably, my missing father.  
I panicked, I froze, I babbled like an idiot.  I’m not sure 
exactly what I said, or even if I said anything 
intelligible.
	“Whoa boy, calk down…   your dad doesn’t know you’re 
here does he?” I shook my head this time.  I think I 
managed that successfully because he went on, “It’s ok, 
what happened?”  He only paused for a second before 
continuing, “is your family alright?”
      I almost nodded but instead blurted out, “I don’t know 
where my family is!  Those people, they took me and I don’t 
know were I am, or who you are or anything.”  His confused 
and concerned expression was oddly comforting.
      “Who?  Who took you?  It’s ok, you’re safe here, and 
you’re only a couple miles from your house.  Can you tell 
me who took you, what they looked like?”  I gave him a 
description of the man and woman who had called themselves 
my parents.  His face shifted neutral, but I went on and 
described their children too, giving all their names.  
      “Richard, this isn’t funny.  I’m not in the mood for 
one of your jokes.”
      “I’m NOT joking!  They all thought I was their son, 
but I’m not!  I must look exactly like their son or 
something, because even their children believed that I was 
him.”
      “That’s because you ARE their son.  Listen, if we’re 
going to continue this can we go inside, my family wife and 
I were just about to eat.”  I nodded and he led me into a 
house very similar to one I’d escaped from, but without any 
rooms added on.
      Over a much needed meal of a horrible stew, I told 
them about the events leading up to my escape.  I told them 
of the goat, and the beating, and the weird old lady.  He 
seemed to pay a little more attention at the mention of her 
name.  I told him all about what my mother had told me 
about what she had said.  I told him of digging a tunnel 
and walking for a full day before finally ending up at his 
door.  In between all of this, I somehow told him all about 
being from Florida and about my real family and such.  He 
looked like he didn’t believe a word of it.  His wife on 
the other hand was enthralled.  She hung on my every word 
and was very comforting to look at and talk towards.  By 
the end of my story I wasn’t telling the story to him, I 
was just telling it to his wife.
      When I finished, they just stat there looking at me.  
It was getting uncomfortable.  “So do you think I’m crazy 
too?”
      “That is some story you’ve got there, boy.”
      “Do you actually believe everything you’ve just said?”
      “YES!  Oh god, I can’t believe this.  Everyone’s in on 
it. Why won’t you just take me HOME!!”
      “Its late, how about you sleep here tonight, we’ll 
help you figure out what’s going on tomorrow.”
	I protested a little longer, but my legs where sore, 
and I hadn’t gotten any sleep the previous night.  I pulled 
up next to the fire with a blanket they’d given me.

I went back home the next morning.  It wasn’t