Chapter 1
Aimee and Kate were your typical 7-year-olds. They were neighbors since birth; their mothers were even best friends. They had it made. They would bounce from house to house, have sleepovers every weekend, and spend Christmas, birthdays, and every holiday as one big family. Until one day, everything changed. The girls were playing hide-and-seek in their front yards, and Aimee never returned. Kate looked everywhere for her; she thought she had just found a really good hiding spot. Kate looked for hours, giggling every time she thought she found her. Then it started to get dark; she yelled for Kyle, saying, “It’s not funny anymore! Come out," which drew the attention of their parents. Aimee and Kate's parents joined the search. Quickly, every person in the neighborhood was searching for Aimee. There were over sixty people in the entire community searching, but no one could find a single clue. No one was going to give up until they found her hiding spot. It was blaringly obvious that Kate wasn't bound; she was taken. After nearly 24 hours of searching for Aimee relentlessly, her parents finally were able to call the police and file a missing person's case. The police issued an amber alert and had their best detectives on it. But it just didn't seem to be enough. The rule that parents have to wait 24 hours before filing a missing person's case is terrifying. They say the first 48 hours are what makes our break a person's survival when kidnapped. Aimee's parents weren't rich; they weren't big into politics; and really, they kept to themselves, so they weren't well known in the community other than the fact that they had lived there for 20 years. Everyone knew of them; they just didn't know them. That didn't stop them from reaching out to every person in the city to help them. See, Kaye's mom owned a thrift shop in town, and her dad worked in construction. They did news interviews, press conferences, and anything they could possibly do to find their daughter. Aimee was their only child, their pride and joy, and her mom’s best friend. So when she went missing, her parents shut down. Her dad didn't go to work for nearly 2 months. Her mom could barely get herself out of bed.
Kate blamed herself. Even though they were just playing a game, she kept thinking over and over that if she had told her parents sooner, maybe they would've found her. That if they had just stopped playing when Aimee asked her to before, then she would still be here. But no, Kate wanted to continue playing a little longer. She will always blame herself for that. A day doesn't go by where Kate doesn't think about Aimee and wonder what type of person she would be. She always wondered if she would notice her.
Aimee's parents never moved on.They kept her room exactly the same. They kept reliving the day over and overin their heads, but they never blamed Kate. They never thought that it was herfault that their child went missing. She was an innocent child just like theirdaughter and they were playing a game how could she have possibly known thatAimee wasn't just hiding and that she had been taken? They had given up onfinding her, unlike Kate, who never stopped trying.
Once, about 5 years ago, theythought they saw her on the beach with a man about her age, but when theycalled for her she didn't respond so they thought it must not be her. theyfollowed the look alike until they were sure it wasn't her. Kate had a similarexperience, she ran into a woman a couple years ago who looked just like theartist rendition of what she would look like twelve years older. But when Katetried to engage with her the woman told her she must be confused because hername wasn't Aimee. Kate would never give up. She has photos in every hospital,police station, transit station, and jail. Any play that has a lot of peopleconstantly moving about to ensure her face is still seen.
