One day in April 2005, Roxanne was taking a well-earned break. She had plenty of very busy days at the café she worked at, but she never thought she ever had a busier day than today and she had never been more grateful for when she could go and take a breather than this one. All she wanted now was peace, quiet and nothing to go wrong before she went back to work.
Then Roxanne's mobile phone rang. She saw it was Mrs. Keeper that was ringing her. She answered it. "Hi, Mrs. Keeper."
"Miss Roxanne!" Mrs. Keeper cried. "It's Jimmy!"
That got Roxanne very worried. "What about Jimmy? Has he done something wrong?"
"No, nothing wrong at all!" Mrs. Keeper cried. "He's been kidnapped in my store!"
Roxanne dropped her phone as she gasped. Her beloved son Jimmy kidnapped? But who would do such a thing to a nice boy like him? And why?
Roxanne felt that she just had to go to Mrs. Keeper's grocery store and ask her what happened to her, her store and Jimmy. She was very grateful that the manager of the café allowed her to take the rest of the day off as it was an emergency. She promised to make up for the other hours. As she ran to the store, she called Max to let him know about the Jimmy situation and asked him to meet her at Mrs. Keeper's store, which he promised he would.
Roxanne arrived at the store as quickly as she could and she was glad that Max was there as well. They went into the store and they were very shocked at what they saw. There were stalls that had fallen and some of them were broken. And apples, bananas, tomatoes, watermelons, potatoes and carrots among the fresh fruit and vegetables all squashed into a lake-sized puddle on the floor. Then they were shocked to see Mrs. Keeper, an old goat wearing old lady clothes with fruit stains all over them. She was sitting on her stool with a bag of ice on her head and being asked a few questions by a couple of policemen.
"Are you okay, Mrs. Keeper?" Roxanne asked.
"Just a bump of on the head, dearie," she replied, as she kept dabbing the bump on her head with the bag of ice.
"Do you know who did this?" Max asked.
Mrs. Keeper started to explain all she witnessed of this terrible event. Young Jimmy came to her store and gave her the shopping list that Roxanne gave him to get some stuff after school. Roxanne and Jimmy had been to Mrs. Keeper's grocery store plenty of times since they moved to Forksville. She was a very nice and friendly old lady and Roxanne and Jimmy trusted her and she became one of Roxanne's friends.
When Mrs. Keeper finished gathering everything from the shopping list, Jimmy was about to pay her with the money Roxanne gave to him when someone approached the counter. No one could see who the person was because black clothing completely covered up the whole body and there was even a black mask all over the head. Then the person only grabbed Jimmy and took him. He or she didn't seem to be interested in the food or the money, just the young boy. Mrs. Keeper pressed the security alarm button, hoping it would stop the figure but it didn't. Then Mrs. Keeper ran to rescue Jimmy herself, but the figure only pushed her into her stalls, bumping her head and knocking the fruit and vegetables onto the floor and squashing them. And then the police arrived and took over everything. And that was the whole story.
Mrs. Keeper sniffed. "I'm so sorry I couldn't save Jimmy, Miss Roxanne." She started to sob.
"It's all right, Mrs. Keeper," Roxanne said, putting her hand on her shoulder. "You did your very best to help Jimmy and Max and I are very grateful to you for that."
"And we're very grateful to you for letting us know, too, Mrs. Keeper," Max said.
"Sir, Ma'am," the Police Chief said, approaching them. "Are you the missing boy's parents?"
"We are," Max and Roxanne said together. They said they were because there was no time to split hairs.
"We need you both to take a look at this security camera footage," the Police Chief said.
Max and Roxanne followed the Police Chief to the store's security cameras and watched the footage. What they saw was shocking but also showed concrete proof that Mrs. Keeper was telling the whole truth. There was a figure covered in black clothing including the head that grabbed Jimmy and took him away and Mrs. Keeper did go to try and rescue him from the figure, but she got slammed into the stalls and the produce that she sold to the public to make a living. As she watched it, Roxanne couldn't handle seeing her son be taken away with a dangerous stranger. Max put his arms around her to comfort her.
"That boy is definitely your son?" the Police Chief asked. "We need to know to confirm."
"He definitely is, Chief," Max replied. He answered because Roxanne was jut too upset to reply.
Then the Police Chief promised Max and Roxanne that he and the police would do everything they could in their power and control to find and bring Jimmy back to them. Max and Roxanne thanked the Police Chief for that and, as there was nothing left for them to do at the crime scene, it was time for them to leave and let the police do their job.
That night, Roxanne couldn't sleep or eat or drink anything at all and neither could Max because they were so worried about Jimmy and they missed him a lot.
"I finished calling my family and our friends," Max told her. "They all promised to keep an eye out for Jimmy and if they find him, they'll look after him until we come to get him."
"Well, that's good," Roxanne said. "Thank you for doing that, Max."
Max sat down on the sitting room's couch next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "I know this is hard, Roxanne, but everyone – us, my family and our friends, the police, everyone – we're all doing everything we can in our power and control about it."
"I know, Max," Roxanne said, starting to cry, "and I'm very grateful for that, but I just miss him so much and I wish he was here safe and sound. Until he's found and brought back to me, I just can't relax. I can't help feeling that I failed him as his stepmother. I keep wondering if someone else should have looked after him instead of me and –"
"They wouldn't be half as good as you, Roxanne," Max said.
"You really think so, Max?" Roxanne asked.
"I know so. You have been looking after Jimmy longer than I've seen it, but from what I've seen of the last nearly two years of having you and Jimmy in my life, you've been the best parent for him ever."
Roxanne stopped crying and started to smile for the first time since she received word about Jimmy being kidnapped. "Thanks, Max."
"And also I'm very grateful that you trust me to look after him when you ask me to."
"Well, I've always trusted you ever since I first met you in high school. And apart from you lying to me about your dad and Powerline, you've never let me down. And I'm so glad that you've come back into my life."
Then they hugged and kissed.
"Well, I need to get some sleep now," Max said. "I promise that, once I wake up tomorrow morning, I'll look for Jimmy as best as I can first thing tomorrow before breakfast."
"Thanks, Max. Good night."
"Good night, Roxanne. And try to drink some water if you can."
Then Max went to bed while Roxanne decided to stay on the couch a bit longer. She still hadn't forgotten about how distant Max was being, but because he had been so helpful today and gentle with her when she needed him to and she was very grateful to him for that, she decided not to bring it up. Besides, more importantly, her son was missing and all she could think off was hoping that he would get found and come back to her.