It might not be the right time…

Something about Us – Daft Punk

Chapter One: The Prologue

There weren't many things I could recall from that time… It was hazy at best. The emotional turmoil overrode any details I would have remembered in a more rational, sane state of mind.

I remembered the feeling of despair that had washed over me as I recalled my son's very last words to me.

~Mommy, I'm going to Nora's! We're going to bake some cupcakes! I'm gonna learn all kinds of things and be a great chef like Daddy!~

He was eight years old when he had disappeared. He was supposed to be at his friend's house. They lived just a few houses down from us on the very same street. I could see their house from my living room window. I remember standing on the front porch, watching as he walked down the street toward his friend's house and walking up their driveway. He had turned to look back at me and waved at me, our signal that he was fine and safe…

I had turned away and that was the last I had ever seen of him.

Nora's parents had not seen him that day. He never made it to their porch.

How could they not have seen him? He had been right there on their driveway…

Needless to say, he was gone.

The day he disappeared, he had been wearing his favorite apron that had still been stained with the marinara sauce from his last venture with his Daddy to learn how to cook spaghetti. He had been so proud that he did not want me to wash it no matter how many times I had tried to sneak it into the washing machine. He had been wearing his favorite green shirt with a giraffe embroidered on the right breast and a pair of khaki shorts with well worn white sneakers. He also had with him a small burnt pan that had belonged to his Daddy- he kept it with him everyday to practice his pan flipping, just in case his Daddy wanted him to flip eggs or pancakes…

An Amber Alert had been given state wide the moment the twenty four hour mark had been reached. As the days passed, blame was thrown every which way as to who was responsible for the disappearance of my son. It fell amongst a group of us- from Nora's parents, to any random stranger who may have been in the area at the time. However, it had mostly fallen on me…

How could I have let my son walk alone up the street? Why would any mother allow their child to willingly go anywhere by themselves, even if it was just a few houses down?

Why was I such a bad mother?

Why?

Why…

After the disappearance of my son, I had lost all sense of myself. Life no longer held any joy or hope. Things had become strained between my husband and myself. He blamed me for the loss of our son. I let him and accepted the blame. It was easier that way for everyone… It's always easy when there is someone to blame…

It wasn't long before we had divorced.

I had quit my job and moved for away from the town and the state my son had been born in.

I was lost and mostly alone.

I had no one but my little brother and his girlfriend, who took pity on me and allowed me to room with them in their small apartment. They were the only lights of my life at that time. I had to survive, if only not to be a burden to my brother. I had gotten an office job, something simple but consistent, at the college my brother worked security for. I had worked everyday until out combined incomes was able to help move us all out of that small apartment and into a three bedroom home.

I had cosigned on everything, considering my credit was better than the both of them combined. They were both too young to have had much time to build such a credit line and I was more than willing to share what good credit I had built with them.

What did I care? I had failed my son…

At least I would not fail my baby brother.

I had nothing else in life to live for…

I don't know how much time had passed. The days tend to bleed one into the next when you care so little for time. The seasons had changed and the years had rolled by…

My baby brother and his girlfriend had become husband and wife. I signed my portion of the three bedroom home completely under their name and had moved out. I had found a tiny, one bedroom home for rent not too far from them…

Soon, they were expecting their first child…

I tried to be happy for them. I tried to be supportive…

However, the memories were still so fresh of my one and only child that I had lost. I could not find the love for this child yet to be and so I distanced myself from my only remaining family…

I found that I was spending more and more time alone, hiking through the local trails of the mountain that gave my current hometown some fame. It was a famous mountain if only for that fact that it had a legend attached to it concerning that any who traveled up this mountain would disappear and never return… I was not one for an old wife's tales but I could respect the truth behind a legend. I only stayed within the well traveled areas to get to to the one place I called my own…

It was a field of gold flowers that bloomed each spring.

It was located off a well hidden trail within the forest that rested along the base of the mountain itself. Since no trace of my son had been found, we had no grave for him. Instead we each had a memorial for him…

His father had made a memorial in his hometown...

My memorial was done here in this field of golden flowers…

I had been coming here more and more as of late, finding solace within these gentle yellow blooms…

I loved this place…

It was the only time I had felt truly at peace since my son had disappeared…

It was a find spring day… The day when everything I had ever known in my dead world would change…

The day when I would discover where my kindhearted son had disappeared to… and why...