A Child's Courage.

The Group

Early the next morning, inside a small bedroom lined with shelves of both academic and martial arts awards, a small, brown haired, brown eyed young boy in blue jeans and a tee shirt adjusted the dials of a well equipped ham radio.

“This is Rick.” he said into his mike. “I hear you, Emily. Please, tell me where you are.”

The plea repeated itself over the speaker and Rick turned the radio off in frustration.

“I wish I knew more people who are into ham radios.” he thought. “Then I could easily triangulate that poor girl’s location.”

He sighed wearily, worried about the little girl he had been listening to over the past three days then turned to a small clock hanging over his bed. It was nearly six thirty in the morning. “Uh, oh!” he thought. “If I don’t hurry, I’ll be late for the contest assembly at school!”

He threw the mike down, grabbed his book bag and dashed out the door.

Meanwhile, several houses down, inside another bedroom, cluttered with cheerleading trophies, a small red headed girl named Kelly Mathews reached her hand up and hit the snooze button on her alarm clock for the second time. She slowly raised her head to look at the time and nearly jumped out of her bed in one step, discovering that she had overslept. “Oh, man!” she wailed, tearing off her nightgown and searching for her jeans. “I’m late for the sign up!”

She struggled into her jeans, tore a blue blouse off of the foot of her bed, throwing it over her head, then slipped into a pair of sneakers and made a mad dash out her door, nearly running into Rick who was racing down the side walk towards the same school.

“I’m sorry.” said Kelly. “I’m kind of in a hurry.”

“That’s okay.” replied Rick. “I’m sort of in a rush myself. The summer vacation project contest assembly will be starting in about a half an hour.”

“Hey, aren’t you that brainy kid I teamed up with last semester? Yeah, Rick Stone, right? How is your computer project coming along?”

“Our project.” corrected Rick. “Don’t forget you had a big hand in it’s development. It would have taken me a lot longer to write the high speed facial comparison program with all of the age progression factors without your help.”

Kelly smiled. “Well, just because I am a cheerleader doesn’t mean I am a complete air head. By the way, did you get all of the kids you wanted in your group?”

“Oh, they are already in my group, except for you. I took the precaution of having them officially sign up with me earlier in the year. They are waiting for me at the school right now. I just, uh.. overslept.”

“Same here, I’m hoping to get into the same group as the star quarterback. You know, Jonathan Porter. He only has four members in his group and today is the last day you can change groups. It’s a popularity thing, I don’t expect you to understand.”

“Actually, I do.” said Rick simply. “But I’m afraid your chances are slim at best.”
“What do you mean?”

“Well, first of all, the sign up assembly, where everyone officially announced and signed up with their desired group, was last week.”

Kelly’s face turned red with irritation. “Last week!?! Has your mind completely burned out? The sign up assembly is today! I wrote it down right here in my planner!”

She pulled a small booklet out of her purse and turned to the day’s date. “See? It’s right here, I...”

Kelly’s voice quickly trailed off as her mouth dropped open in disbelief. “This isn’t my handwriting!” She looked at the previous week and fumed as she found a number of eraser fragments on the page. “Someone’s been messing with my planner! But who...”

“That’s simple.” said Rick, “Every cheerleader is trying to get into the same group as Jonathan Porter. And since there can only be five members in each group, I’d say that one of the other cheerleaders had tampered with your planner to give herself a better chance. Either way, it’s very possible that Jonathan Porter already has his group of five members, one of them is likely to be the culprit.”

Kelly made a fist and shook it at her side then let out a long, low sigh. “So much for that then.” she said.

“Well, if you find that you can not get into the group you were hoping for, you could still sign up with mine.” suggested Rick. “We could use a fifth member and since you worked with my group during the school year, you are still technically in my group. All they need to make it official is your signature. “Who knows, our little venture just might win the grand prize.”

Kelly slowly shook her head, as if trying to figure out the child before her, then shrugged her shoulders. “Well, we’ll see how things go.” she said.

Several minutes later, the two reached their school, Westlake junior high, where a large number of students were piling into the school gymnasium for the young entrepreneurs venture contest assembly. Kelly stopped in front of the main entrance for a moment, astonished by the sheer number of students.

“I never imagined that there would be so many students entering this contest.” she said. “I guess what you said about my chances were right after all.”

“The grand prize is a full scholarship package to any state college in the nation for every member of the winning group.” replied Rick. “With a prize like that, every junior high and high school in the state has entered the contest, along with several schools in every state in the country.”

Kelly gasped at the news. “Then the competition must be absolutely intense! But tell me, what makes you think your, I mean, our group has any chances of winning?”

“Oh, our chances of winning are just as good as anyone else.” assured Rick. “Only we have been working on this project for a full year now.”

“You mean that computer program you and your friends have been working on?”

Rick nodded. “That’s the one. And since you had helped me out with some of the more complicated aspects of the program, I don’t think the others will mind you joining the group if you can help us out with a slight snag we had reached.”

Kelly cocked her head to one side. “What’s that?”

“I’ll explain it to you when I introduce you to the rest of the group.” said Rick. “Come on, they’re waiting for us.”

Inside, Rick and Kelly followed the mass of students into the gymnasium where they were meet by a tall young girl with long black hair. She was in a gold and red skirt, a red shirt and a gold sleeveless vest, the school’s cheer leading outfit.
“Good morning, Kelly.” said the girl cheerfully.

“Hi, Hannah.” replied Kelly grumpily. “What are you so happy about?”

“Oh, are we in a bad mood?” asked Hannah, teasingly. “I’m sorry you missed the final sign up assembly last Saturday. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.”

Hannah smiled and Kelly’s eyes widened with understanding as a flash of anger flared in her eyes. “It was you who tampered with my planner!” she said, pointing an accusing finger. “How could you!?!”

“Guilty as charged.” said Hannah, winking at her. “But you know what they say, all is fair in love and war.”

“You don’t know what war is you back stabbing little...”

“What’s going on?” asked a tall, brown haired, muscular boy, in a black, red, and gold school football jersey.

“Kelly here is trying to blame me for missing the sign up assembly.” said Hannah in a whining voice.

“I wouldn’t have missed it if you had not messed around with my planner!” countered Kelly, angrily. “You knew I was trying to get into the same group as Jonathan!”

“That’s between you two.” said John, rising both of his hands. “But right now, we all have to get back to our table. The assembly is about to begin.”

“Good luck, Kelly.” said Hannah, walking away with John. “You will need it.”

“I’ll get you for this, Hannah.” said Kelly. “My group will mop the floor with yours.”

Rick smiled. “I take it then you will be joining our work group after all?”

“Where is your table?” demanded Kelly, ignoring Rick’s question. “Maybe I can help you fix this problem of yours.”

“It’s this way.” said Rick.

Kelly followed Rick to the far side of the gymnasium to a large table in the right corner with three kids sitting around a computer with the eldest in the middle, tapping onto the keyboard. Kelly opened her purse, producing a pen, and signed her full name onto a small sheet of paper, taped to the table, listing the names of the students in the study group. As she placed the pen back into her purse, one of three children sitting at the table, a small girl with long blonde hair and gentle blue eyes, turned around and smiled shyly upon seeing Rick with Kelly in tow.
“Hi, Rick.” she said softly. “Who is your friend?”

The others stopped what they were doing and turned around to look at Rick.

“Hi, Amy.” said Rick. He nodded at the two boys. “Hey, Michael, Race.”

“It’s about time you got here.” scolded a short, but well built boy with sand brown hair. “We could use your help fixing the bugs in this program.”

Michael, a tall, thin boy with jet black hair and a wind burned face hushed he other boy silent. “Cool it, Race.” he said, calmly. He turned to Rick. “You are just in time, kid. But first, why don’t you introduce us to your friend.”

“This is Kelly Mathews.” said Rick. “She is on the school varsity cheerleading team. She is the one who has been helping me out with the more complicated calculations of the program. I’ve finally managed to convince her to join the group.” he turned to Kelly. “This is Michael Brave, Race Powers, and Amy Moss.”

“I’ve heard of you, Michael.” said Kelly. “You were a sure in for first string quarterback on the school football team last year but you quit to team just before the season began. I can’t help but wonder why.”

“Do you have a little brother or sister, Kelly?” asked Michael softly.

Kelly seemed confused. “Yeah, I have a little sister. Why do you ask?”

“Wouldn’t you do anything to help your sister if she were in real trouble?”

Kelly was even more confused. “Yes, of course I would. But what does that have anything to do with...”

“I had a little brother once.” interrupted Michael. “His name was Joey Brave. But he was kidnapped over a year ago. I have a very strong suspicion that he was taken away by my father. He and my mom had a bad divorce sometime ago and he swore in open court that he would get at least one of us back. That is why I dropped out of the football team and began to work on this program with Rick, Race, Amy’s, and your help.”

“So you wrote this program to try to find your missing brother? That is so wild! But just how does it work?”

“It’s simple, really.” said Rick. “The program scans the picture of a missing child, in this case, Michael’s missing brother, then compares it to the pictures of children of the same age group in yearbooks in every school through out the entire country.”

“Through the internet, I assume.” said Kelly.

“Of course.” said Michael. “You would be surprised what you can find on the web.”
“The only tricky part was getting passed the access codes that protect the sites holding the pictures and names of the children.” said Amy. “But Race and I were able to get around them all easily enough.”

“Naturally.” said Kelly. “So what is the problem?”

“Well, every time we run Joey’s picture through, the search program comes up empty.” said Race. “So there has to be a problem somewhere in the program. We just haven’t been able to find it yet.”

Kelly studied at the computer for a moment, thinking, then stepped forward saying, “Maybe the problem doesn’t lie in the program at all.”

“What are you getting at?” asked Race.

“Let me at the computer for a minute and I’ll explain.” said Kelly.

Michael moved aside and Kelly sat down at the keyboard, pulling a small flyer out of her purse before setting it aside onto the table. “The problem may lie in the fact that your brother, Joey, was not taken away by your father at all.”

“So how do we know for sure?” asked Amy.

“The only way we can be certain is to scan the picture of another missing person into the program and see what it comes up with.”

“That is a great idea.” said Rick. “Now why didn’t any of us think of that?”

“Probably because you were all too obsessed with finding Michael’s brother.” said Kelly. She turned to Michael. “No offense intended.”

Michael shrugged, letting out a low, weary sigh. “None taken.” he said.

Kelly lifted the lid of a scanner that was on the desk, next to the computer, pulled out the picture of a small boy with brown eyes and sand blonde hair that was resting in it, then placed the ‘have you seen me’ flyer in it’s place and closed the lid again. “How do you get it to start the search?” she asked.

Michael reached over, moved the mouse over a window on the screen which read, begin search then hit the left mouse button. Instantly, the computer hummed with effort and the picture of a small boy appeared on the left side of the screen while, on the right side of the screen, the faces of a countless number of other children of approximately the same age appeared and disappeared in a blur. The computer was comparing the face of the missing child to the faces of children of the same age group pictured in every year book through out the country.

“The program will be searching every year book in every appropriate school in every town of every state.” said Michael. “It is designed to move in alphabetical order of state, it will take some time for the computer to finish the search. All we can do now is wait.”

“Just out of curiosity, Kelly.” said Rick. “Why did you have that flyer in your purse?”

“Oh, it was in with a few letters I got in the mail from my pen pals.” said Kelly, lightly. “I just stuffed them all in my purse so I could read them at school. I just forgot to take the flyer out.”

“You read your letters at school?” asked Amy.

Kelly smiled. “If you ever get a little brother or sister, you will soon know what I mean.”

“Ladies and gentlemen!” said a man in a business suit through a blow horn. “May I have your attention, please!” The Olympic sized gymnasium slowly became silent and the man continued. “Welcome one and all to the young entrepreneurs venture contest assembly!”

Cheers rose from the students and the man waited for the children to settle down again. “You all had a full school year to come up with a business venture or idea to be entered into the contest.” he said. “And now, the teaching staff, the news media, and yours truly, principal Trake, are anxious to hear what you have all come up with. We will start with the back right corner of the gymnasium and work our way towards the door.”

Hearing this, Michael turned towards the computer, it was then searching through the state of Arkansas. “Come on, come on!” he thought. “Please work! Find that child!”

Principal Trake started with a table on the opposite side of the room from Michael’s group. It was Jonathan Porter’s table. Kelly looked over to Hannah and she gave her a small, mocking smile, making Kelly shiver with anger.

“So what is the idea of your group?” asked Trake.

“Our idea is quite simple.” said Hannah, before Jonathan could speak. “By placing select college books onto CD rom we can save inspiring students from carrying heavy stacks of books from class to class. They could instead carry a mere handful of disks, along with a small supply of three and a quarter inch disks to use to save any notes they may make on the school computers.”

“But then the colleges would have to purchase a large number of computer systems to supply the students with the means of using the CDs.” challenged Trake politely.

Kelly gave Hannah the same mocking smile and she stuck her tongue out at her.

“This is very true, sir.” said Jonathan, taking over the conversation. “But the investment would save the colleges the trouble of having to build new buildings to accommodate the growing number of new students.”

“I don’t think I follow.” said Trake, with a camera man standing behind him.
“With all books on CD rom, students could attend any college from the privacy of their own home ordering the disks through the mail. These students could then use the internet to attend the lectures that are given and send in their homework through the same way or through computer fax. This way, the colleges could accommodate a much larger mass of students without the problem of running out of space. Also, with today’s fast growing technology, entire lectures could be copied onto CD and sent to the student through the mail so that not one lesson is missed.”

“It sounds a little complicated.” mused Trake. “But it seems as if you have put a lot of thought and work into your project. We wish you luck in your venture.”

With that, Trake and the news cameras moved on to the next table. Michael seeing them coming closer again looked at the computer. The program was now searching through the yearbooks in the state of Arizona. “So far so good.” he thought. “Come on, computer, don’t let us down!”

The group at the next table proposed the idea of placing a remote code box on all modern vehicles, the code to match the serial number of the car, so that the police could literally turn off a car they were chasing by remote control. The group also proposed that, by using the same method, it would make it nearly impossible for a vehicle to be stolen.

“It sounds like a marvelous idea.” said Trake. “But again, it seems a bit too complicated to make a big impact on society today.”

It was at that very moment Michael’s computer gave a loud beep, catching not only the attention of his group but the attention of principal Trake, the reporter, and camera man.

“And what do we have over here?” asked Trake, moving over to Michael’s table.
Michael, Kelly, and the group did not hear him at first, all of their attention was focused upon the computer screen.

“It really worked.” whispered Michael in awe. “Our program actually worked.”
“It came up with a one hundred percent match.” said Rick, excited. “Right down to the small scar above the boy’s right eyebrow.”

“And he’s right here, in our own school!” added Kelly, amazed. “What are the chances of that!?!”

“What, uh, who did you find?” asked Trake, confused.

“Huh?” Michael and the group turned and jumped when they found that Trake and the media were curiously watching over their shoulders.

“We have created a computer program designed to find missing children.” said Rick. “Michael came up with the original idea. He, Kelly, and I worked on the complexities of the program itself, facial comparisons, age progression factors, and so on. Race and Amy both worked on the high speed Internet access and up link portion of the program.”

“It sounds interesting.” said the reporter, a slim, well dressed woman with long black hair. “Has this program of yours found a match?”

“Yes, ma’am.” said Amy softly. “It did. And he is right here in our school!”

Upon hearing Amy’s voice over the television speakers, positioned around the gymnasium, everyone turned to Michael’s table.

Several states away, inside a spacious living room, a tall, neatly dressed, slender woman sat in a comfortable easy chair. She turned on the big screen television in front of her with a remote and began to watch a news program covering the national school contest. But as the camera focused on Amy’s face, she gasped aloud in astonishment.

“Paul!” she called. “Paul, come in here, quick!”

A tall, muscular man stormed into the room and looked about. “What is it, Nancy!?!”
Nancy pointed her shaking finger at the television and he too let out a surprised gasp. “It can’t be!” he exclaimed. “It has to be a coincidence!”

“Even if it is just a coincidence, we’ll never know for certain unless we check it out!” pleaded Nancy. “Paul, I have to know!”

After a moment of deep consideration, Paul’s jaws knotted in decision. “Pack your bags.” he said. “We’re going to California.”

Inside the gymnasium, Trake looked at the five children, genuinely surprised. “There is a kidnapped child here in our school?” he asked. “Who?”

Kelly turned around and pointed to a small child sitting at a table on the opposite side of the gymnasium. “Him.” she said. “Tommy O’Falcon from west wing middle school.”

Hannah, who had been ignoring Kelly, suddenly jumped from her seat and looked around as the boy stood up from his table with tears forming in his eyes. “My mom and dad are still alive?” he asked.

Michael smiled, proudly. “Come see for yourself, Tommy.”

“Hey, Race, isn’t Tommy your next door neighbor?” asked Kelly, whispering.

Race turned to her surprised. “Yeah, he had just moved out here from Michigan with his uncle a few months ago.”

“This better not be a prank.” warned Trake, serious.

“It’s no prank, sir.” assured Rick.

Tommy walked over to the computer and stared at the screen with his face on both sides of the screen and the words, ‘match found.’ flashing on the bottom Tommy, after looking at it for a long moment, he whispered. “If there was only a way to really be sure.”

Rick smiled. “There is.” he said. “Check this out.”

He struck a few keys on the keyboard and hit enter. The computer hummed for a moment before the names Mr. and Mrs. Max O’Falcon appeared onto the screen with their address and phone number listed below it.

“Well what do you know?” said Rick, genuinely surprised. “They live right here in Los Angeles!” He rubbed his chin in thought. “Hmm! O’Falcon. Now, why does that name sound so familiar?”

Tommy suddenly became thoughtful. “Is that the reason why my uncle is in such a hurry to move out of state tonight?”

Rick grabbed his book bag, rummaged through it for a moment, then produced a small cell phone which he handed over to Tommy. “Why don’t you give your folks a call?”

“But- But what if it’s not them?” asked Tommy, uncertain.

“There is only one way to find out.” said Kelly.

“Just give them a call, Tommy.” said Amy, softly. “What do you have to loose?”

Trembling, Tom took the cell phone from Rick, looked at the number listed on the computer screen, then nervously dialed the number. As he listened to the rings, everyone inside the gymnasium waited anxiously until Tom busted into tears as he recognized his mother’s voice on the other line.

“Mommy!” he said tearfully. “It’s me, Tommy!”

Hannah, who had been trying to see passed the crowd that had gathered around Rick’s table suddenly got a good look at the boy who had joined them and let out a short, but excited yell. “Tommy!”

A loud gasp escaped Tommy’s lips as he recognized her voice and turned to find Hannah running towards him. “Sis?” He looked again, then let out an yell of his own. “Hannah!”

The two met in the middle of the gymnasium where they held each other in a tight hug, laughing and crying at the same time with the camera man catching every moment.
“I thought I had lost you!” said Tommy, crying.

Hannah wiped the tears from her eyes. “Same here, kid.”

All eyes moved onto Hannah and Tommy as they continued to embrace with camera flashes lighting the scene.

“Of course!” said Rick. “Hannah’s last name is O’Falcon!” he turned to Kelly. “I guess it’s a good thing she tampered with your planner after all.”

“I guess it is.” agreed Kelly. “But I’m not going to tell her that.”

Hannah gently took the phone from Tommy and held it up to her ear. “Mom! It’s Hannah, come to the school, you are not going to believe this!...”

Within the hour, Tommy was reunited with his sister and parents who each held him in a seemingly endless embrace as camera flashes lighted the gymnasium. Reporters from every station and newspaper talked with both the O’Falcon family and Michael’s group while, on the other side of town, the police arrested Tommy’s uncle for kidnapping.

“This is Diana Heart, reporting to you live here inside the gymnasium at Westlake junior high.” said the slim young reporter who was covering the contest. “As you can see from the scene behind me, the contest that had officially started only a few minutes ago may already be over.” The camera man moved his focus onto Michael’s group. “This inventive group of five students have developed a new computer program, one that finds missing children. You heard me right, a computer program that is able to find missing children.”

The camera man then turned his focus onto Tommy, Hannah, and their parents who were still in the middle of their long, tear filled embrace.

“The young boy you see to the left of me was kidnapped by his uncle three years ago to the date. But, thanks to the computer program these five, enterprising children have developed, he is now reunited with his family. Although this group says that their program is not yet complete because of the many different motives for kidnapping, one thing is certain, their project stands a very good chance of winning the grand prize.”

Inside a spacious office in New York city, a plump, balding man turned the television off with his remote, quietly placed it onto his desk, then leaned back in his office chair, pondering. On the opposite side of the desk, to the right, a thin, well dressed man sat in a slightly smaller chair with a frown dominating his expression. “That computer program could expose our entire operation, sir.” he said.

“It has the potential to, Smith.” replied the large man. “But for now, I don’t think it is of any real concern.”

Smith’s frown deepened. “I believe you are taking this too lightly, Mr. Grim.” he said. “I strongly suggest we consider targeting the entire group.”

“That would raise much suspicion, Smith.” said Grim. “We already have one of the children targeted for a couple in Kentucky. We will use him as a playing card to persuade these inspiring young people not to take their child search program any further.”

“And if our move inspires them to track us down?”

Grim laughed. “My dear Harry Smith, you are talking as if these preteen children were grown ups!” he laughed again. “Don’t worry, I have been dealing with stubborn children for a very long time, these five youngsters should be no more of a challenge. But, just in case, I’ll have two of my men send them a message.”