The Disappearance of a Pied Piper

Where Are You?

Bud followed each of his children into their individual bedrooms to tuck each into his or her bed with some word of encouragement, and the heartfelt, but obligatory, "I love you."

These are good kids, he thought, even if they have gotten religion at such a young age. Maybe I should pay a visit to Jim Book at the church, tomorrow during my shift. I need to learn more about what he is teaching my children, and what it really means to "get saved."

"I love you, Cynthia," Bud said. "Rest well."

"I love you, too, Bud," she responded. "Come to bed. You're weary."

"Let me brush my teeth, and check the doors. I should be right beside you in about ten minutes."

"Okay, but not a minute more. We need to snuggle tonight. I feel so lonely. Something's not right."

"It's just emotions, that are no doubt responding to a weary body," he assured her. "We'll be okay." Yet, I felt that same way during the day. I wonder what's going on with us.

Ten minutes later on the nose, Bud Best climbed into his bed, wrapping his dear wife into a big ol' bear hug. This is nice. We've got a great life in a peaceful, little town on a large, and wonderfully safe island out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Who would ever bother us way out here?

At 4:00 AM Bud Best stretched himself just like yesterday and every day before that, yawning his biggest yawn, while reaching for the alarm to shut it off, and start his day. Seven hours of sleep is a goodly amount. I feel refreshed. I wonder what today has to offer me.

His automatic coffee is once again a great gift. Two extra-large eggs, five strips of bacon, 20-ounce glasses of orange juice, and fresh milk make him sated and ready for the day.

4:20. I'm a little ahead of schedule, he thought. Let me go check on the kids, watch them breathe, and thank good fortune for such a wonderful life with the people I love the most.

Bud crept quietly into Jeff's room so as not to wake him. The more he neared the bed the more unsettled he became. The nightlight shows a flat bed. Where is Jeff? Bud asked himself. He reached for the lip of the covers nearest where his head should be. Gently, he pulled them back to reveal Jeff's pajamas and socks in the same arrangement, that should contain Jeff in them. What about his underwear? Gently he opened the pajama bottoms to find underwear right where they could be expected to be. In a loud whisper, he called out, "Jeff, where are you? This is not funny. You need to come out of hiding, and put your clothes back on."

Silence.

Again, he called, "Jeff, seriously now, where are you? This is way past not funny. Why are you of all people running around the house buck naked?"

Silence.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. A cold chill ran down his back. Maybe I should check on Rolly and Jewel, then come back to Jeff.

Uncertainty formed a lump in Bud's throat. He couldn't swallow. Slowly, gently, quietly he crept toward toward Rolly's door. The doorknob electrified the skin all over his body. Pushing the door open at last, Bud slid toward Rolly's bed. The closer he got the more his heart sank. In the dim glow of the nightlight, Rolly's bed was as flat as Jeff's had been. Carefully pulling back the covers, he revealed pajamas in the exact order that should have contained Rolly, but Rolly was not there. Curiously, he pulled open the pajama pants to show underwear like he wore them last night when he went to bed.

With the same loud whisper, Bud called out, "Rolly, are you hiding somewhere? This is not funny, Son. Is Jeff with you? If you're both running around naked, I'm going to beat your butts when I finally find you. Come out of hiding, and show yourselves. The game's over."

Silence.

"Seriously, boys. Come out. Come out wherever you are. I'm really over this game. You're starting to scare me major big time."

Silence.

JEWEL! The mental scream shook him to his core. Still in loud whisper mode, he called to the boys, "You had better not be playing in the dark in the nude with your baby sister. That would force me to consider my own boys for Juvy. Come on out now. You're putting me in such a bad position."

Silence.

"Be that way, then!" Bud raced across the hall to Jewel's bedroom, fear making this door nearly impossible to open. Leaning against it, his own weight finally pushed it ajar. Frozen in time, and immobilized in body and sensibilities, he willed himself to take first one step and then another, until he neared Jewel's bed.

Same scenario. The nightlight revealed a bed with no baby girl in it. For the third time in the wee hours of the morning, Bud Best drew back covers to show pajamas, that should have a child inside, but no child was there. The shape of the bedclothes was in the position of a sleeping human being. Pajama top. Check. Pajama bottoms. Check. Socks. Check. Underwear? He pulled open the pajama bottoms. The underpants are right where they are expected to be with a child inside, but alas no child is inside.

In a moment of sheer panic, he realized. This is no game. The children are missing. "CYNTHIA! CYNTHIA! CYNTHIA!" He abandoned nighttime protocols. This was an emergency.

"WHAT IS IT, BUD?" she shouted from their bed.

"COME TO JEWEL'S ROOM! NOW!"

Seconds later she was by his side screaming, too. "Where's my baby? Who would do such a thing? What about the boys?"

"They're gone, too!" Bud stood stunned, then recovering himself, he told Cynthia, resolutely, "Forget the shower. I'm going to throw on my uniform and go to work early. Something is very wrong. I need to get to the bottom of this."

"What am I to do?" she asked.

"Stay here. Guard the children's rooms. We need to mount a full-scale investigation."

Two minutes later he was ready for work. "I love you. Please, be as strong as you can be. I promise you. I will get answers, or there will be Hell to pay!"

Eyes still streaming with tears, Cynthia nodded, "Yes."

In ten minutes time, Bud was standing in front of the two perplexed night-shift officers. "What is it, Chief?" they asked.

"My kids are missing!" Bud spoke and stared. "At first light, we'll lock up the station, and start a full-scale investigation at my house, but for now, I want you two to patrol the area. Then, park at my house, and comb my property and our street with flashlights. If that bastard is still in the area, I want him in custody. I'm gonna 'throw the book at him.'"

"Sure, Chief. We're on it." They didn't waste any time.

What am I going to do, now? Bud wondered. This has been a quiet, little town for so long, that I've almost forgotten procedures. He pulled out an old textbook, scanning the Table of Contents for the chapter on Missing Children. The first paragraph reads, "Send out an APB." Fat lot of good that's going to do me, he thought. Five police officers on a large island, and the residents are no doubt still asleep. He threw the book against the wall and started pacing. Who could have done this to you, kids? Why couldn't I keep you safe?" He sat at his desk with his head in his hands, giving in to grief for the first time, weeping for long minutes.

When his tears were spent for the moment, he rose from his chair, walked to the bathroom, and washed his face. Walking across the main room, he looked out the window to see one of the farmers in town walking resolutely to the station. He opened the door. "What's up, Grady?"

Grady Barnes owned the biggest farm on the island, but this morning he was not about the business of food production, his thoughts were a little more personal. "Plenty!" he spat back. "Both of my boys are missing!"

"Seriously? My three kids are gone, too." Bud felt a terrible uneasiness growing in the pit of his stomach. "Tell me about it."

"After getting myself some coffee at about 5:00 AM, I decided to go to check in on the boys," Grady said. "When I got to Billy's room, the door was already partially open because he likes it that way. I walked in quietly, but the closer I got to his bed the hackles on my neck stood on end."

"What'd you find?"

"In the glow of the nightlight, the bed was flat," Grady said. "I pulled back the covers and found clothes in the shape of a sleeping boy, but there was no boy in them. I was curious to see, if maybe Billy was playing a trick on me, hiding somewhere in his underwear, but pulling up the pajama pants, the underwear was still there."

"What about Patrick?"

"Virtually, the same thing," Grady said. "I crept in to keep from disturbing his sleep, growing more alarmed the closer I got to his bed, and in the glow of the nightlight, I saw a flat bed. I pulled back the covers to reveal bedclothes in the shape of a sleeping boy with no boy in them. Just to make sure, I checked and his underwear was still inside the pajama bottoms."

"Grady, you have just described what happened to me three times this morning," Bud said. "All of my kids are gone, apparently nude, somewhere."

"What's happening, Bud? Do we have a pervert on the loose?"

"I don't know, yet, but my two night officers are scanning the perimeter of my property as we speak."

"Don't look now, Chief, but a crowd is headed this way," Grady said. "More evidence?"

Seconds later the door burst open with everyone talking at once. "My boys are missing." "My little girl is gone." "Three kids in my house, and every one of them has disappeared." "I can't find my kids. What're you gonna do about that?"

Bud held up his hand, and said, "Alright. Alright. Calm down, Everybody. We can't get anything done this way. I believe all of you, and I'm going to need a written statement from every one of you, that I can enter into evidence. However, right now we need to get organized. I don't have enough chairs and tables for all of us. Grady, go ask Pa Freshly if he minds if we move this impromptu town meeting to the diner." Turning back to the group, he continued, "I will listen to every one of you in turn, but I cannot hear any one of you when you talk at the same time."

"But my kids?" "What're we gonna do?" "Who would do such a thing?" "Help us, please!" The cacophony of voices on top of each other was almost more than Bud could take.

"This is the very thing I'm talking about," Bud said. "We aren't doing any of us any good by going crazy. I know we're all scared. I know we all want our children back. I know, that none of us had any warning, but I know we'll make more progress when we've had a little bit to eat, and we return to Robert's Rules of Order."

Right then, Grady popped his head in the door. "Pop says, 'Come on.' He's got two fresh pots of coffee, and half a dozen pecan pies right out of the oven."

"What're we waiting for?" Bud asked. "We'll reconvene at the Freshly Diner." He smiled and held out his right arm to direct the crowd.