ch. 1
Family photographs are hanging on white painted walls. Each one of them shows our family smiling at our happiest moments. If you look closely, however, one of us is never smiling. Its my older brother, Bruce.
Our next door neighbor used to come over to our house, and her and Bruce would play with me sometimes. Bruce used to smile all of the time when I was little, but Bruce has been lacking friends ever since Jane went missing, and ever since then his smile went diseased.
Was Bruce lonely? I’m not really sure, however, my brother has always had me for company. He’s five years older than me. Both of us grew up in a city with a lot of strangers, and its a big thing to miss someone you know.
Jane Carlyle was the next door neighbor girl. She was kidnapped on a dark night when her and Bruce went walking alone.
They talked for awhile, Bruce and Jane did, as Bruce informed me, downtown in the middle of the night, a few blocks away from the barber shop. That’s where Mary was kidnapped. The bad guys beat up Bruce badly, and even got around to molesting Jane in front of him. Honestly, they might have killed her by now for all we know. Bruce hasn’t worn a smile ever since Jane went missing, and he’ll cry at any mention of his best friend.
Our parents never saw any reason to leave the city of Lakeshore until Jane was kidnapped. Things changed and our family moved away. We found a house in the smaller city of Brown Brick where Bruce got a job at a car shop, and I made friends at the middle school.
