"Get back here, August Mason Spiegelman! Do not obey your parents!"

"You are not my parents!" I yell. It's true. They're not my parents. My real birth parents abandoned me in the middle of nowhere, a place called Algoe. At least my birth mother left a letter. It says:

I'm sorry I had to leave. This is August Mason Spiegelman. Take good care of her.

I run out the door, my parents running after me.

Yeah, I'm a girl. August and Mason are boy names. At least she named me before she left me.

That's it. I'm going to run away. There's no point in being here anymore. I live in New York. I was brought here after being found in Algoe.

No one knows who my birth parents are.


Dad finally catches me.

"If you run away one more time, we will throw you to the streets!" Dad yells. I notice two men sitting in our living room.

"Who are they?" I ask in a quiet voice.

"Find out yourself!" I walk over to them.

"Who are you?"

The small man says, "I'm Ben."

The one with glasses says, "I'm Radar. We can tell you who your birth parents are."

"Yeah, your father is Quentin Jacobsen, and by the looks of it, your mother was a mystery named Margo Roth Spiegelman." Ben says.

"Was?"

"No one knows where she is. Quentin, your father, gave up a long time ago. Everyone thinks she's dead." Ben says.

"First, why are you here? And, can I see my Dad?"

"Well, we are actually here to take you to see your Dad. Your parents are throwing you out. We're going to a place called Jefferson Park."