Long Lost

Anna hung up the phone and exhaled, glancing down at the framed photo on her desk. Two wide-eyed kids smiled back at her. She could barely remember being so happy, so carefree. Tears sprang to her eyes and she squeezed them tight to keep the tears from falling.

What would life be like right now if the situation had been different? If she could’ve changed what happened, would they celebrate weddings and birthdays together? Have weekend BBQs, stop by each other’s houses just to talk?

She let her mind wander as she stared at the photo. Back to the time, just months after the photographer snapped the shutter, when everything changed.

Alan had been playing on the jungle gym, his shouts and laughter echoing across the empty park. She could see the sun shining on his soft blonde hair as it hung from his upside down head. They’d been at the park for over two hours and Anna was ready to go. She’d forgotten a hat, even though her mother had reminded her three times, and she was starting to get a headache from the glare of the sun. At 12 years old, she was at the age where she didn’t want to be seen playing with her baby brother at the playground. He was eight and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. She wanted to get home to read the newest issue of Pop Crush while she listened to her favorite CD.

“Time to go, Alan,” she said, for the eighth time.

“Five more minutes,” he called. “Please!!!”

Anna sighed. It was always like this with him. He never wanted to leave the playground. He’d probably stay here all day, forgetting to eat, if no one bothered him. But their parents had put Anna in charge, not him. And she had decided it was time to go. Still, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to give him five more minutes.

“Okay, but that’s it,” she responded. “I don’t want to tell you again.”

“Yay!!! Now come climb with me!”

Despite herself, Anna felt the smile cross her face. She loved climbing on the jungle gym, even if she didn’t want anyone else to know that. Glancing around, she walked quickly to the closest part, leaning over to grab the hot metal with her hands. She climbed quickly, excited to get to the top and see the view over the playground. She was about halfway there when she felt the air cool, the sky darken. She kept going, used to the effects the puffy clouds had on the heat of the summer sun. Finally, she reached the apex and swung her legs around to dangle through the top of the huge dome. She sat up and closed her eyes, turning her face towards the sky.

The wind picked up, then. Blowing her damp hair off her neck. Anna felt the goosebumps erupt across her skin and, uneasily, she opened her eyes, just as Alan screamed.

“Anna! Look at the sky!”

Anna looked. Gone was the clear blue sky of the morning. It seemed to no longer be above them, but all around them. Thick, grey clouds closed in from all directions. She could no longer see across the park to the houses around the edge. Frantically, she twisted and turned, looking for Alan. Her heart sped when she couldn’t spot him right away. Then, there. Near the outside of the jungle gym he climbed in a panic, trying to reach her at the top.

The dark clouds kept creeping closer and Anna felt tingles all across her skin. Alan screamed again, the clouds were right behind him.

“Hurry, Alan!” Anna cried.

His shoe slipped on the metal, plunging his small body through the hole in the jungle gym. He hung there for a moment, his knuckles white on the handle bar. Anna could see him trying as hard as he could to pull himself back up, but he couldn’t. She started to make her way down to him as the grey clouds began creeping across the ground beneath them. She was almost there when one of his hands slipped. He screamed and looked up at her.

Their eyes locked.

She reached for him.

“Anna!!!!” He cried just as his fingers slipped.

He seemed to fall forever. Down, down, down.

Down through the mist.

Anna froze, holding her breath. She listened for his cry as he hit the ground, but it never came. Silence surrounded her. Quickly, she started making her way down, calling out to him as she went.

“Alan! Alan are you okay? Answer me!”

Nothing. Abruptly, the clouds began to move. They boiled and swirled down from the sky, avoiding her, circling underneath her until they finally poured into the ground. The sky lightened, the grass shown green under the hot summer sun once again.

Anna looked down. The ground underneath her was bare. Not only was Alan not lying on the ground, nothing was on the ground. No grass, no dirt. In the spot right below where Alan fell, where the clouds had converged and then disappeared, there was a hazy hole and the bare ground around it was slowly closing over it.

Anna scrambled down from the jungle gym, missing the last bar altogether and stumbling to the ground. She righted herself and ran to the hole. But it was nearly gone now. Just as she reached her hand out to touch it, it became solid once more.

She stood staring at the spot, chest tight, breathing ragged. No. It couldn’t be. He had fallen right here. Blinking herself out of her daze, Anna began turning in circles. First one direction, then the other, her eyes scanning every part of the park she could see.

“Alan!!!” Her voice came out ragged, panicked. She started running from one end of the park to the other. Where was he? He had to be here.

Anna spent most of the next hour running around the park, searching in the bathrooms, behind trees, underneath cars. Gone. He was just… gone.

“Anna, are you alright?”

Anna shook herself out of the memory, the nightmare, back into the present moment. She was sitting at her desk at work. She wiped the drops of cold sweat from her forehead.

“Yeah, sorry,” she said. “I was just trying to remember something.”

Lena, her cubicle mate laughed. “Whatever it was must’ve been important. I’ve never seen you look so terrified. But, anyway, we’ve gotta get to the meeting. Don’t want to make a bad first impression on the new boss.”

“Oh! Right. We better go,” Anna said, collecting her meeting notebook and a pen. She spared one last glance at the photo, wishing things had turned out differently, wishing she had ever seen her baby brother again.

There had been police, search parties, news stories. Not a trace of Alan was ever found again. And here she was, 20 years later, still reliving it as if it were happening now. But she couldn’t focus on that now. She had a job to do and a new boss to meet. She took a big breath and let it out on a sigh, trying to relax her body the way her therapist taught her.

Stepping into the conference room, she pushed through the crowd of all her colleagues to find a spot at the table. Chills went up her arms and she rubbed them away, suddenly wishing she’d brought her sweater. Was it colder in here than usual? She set her things on the table and looked around, feeling her gaze drawn to the front of the room. Her breath caught in her chest, the chills came back. She blinked.

There before her was a tall man with soft blonde hair. He was speaking to her manager. The two shook hands before he slowly started turning towards her. He was taller than her, maybe late twenties.

She met his eyes and felt the earth rock under her feet. Smiling, he reached out his hand to her.

“Hi, I’m Alan,” he said. “Have we met before?”