The Vanished

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” -Arthur C. Clarke

Maybe it’s guilt, but there’s really nothing we can do now. I still can’t fully explain what happened. We just have to move on. I’m going to try to remember as much as possible and keep this journal so anyone who may be reading this, please remember that I did my best and I’m sorry.

I recall that everything started on Mother’s Day. My son and I got up early to make sure it was the best day a mom could ask for. Breakfast in bed and a gift I had picked up earlier in the week, yes this was going to be a great one! As I was making breakfast, my son Evan helped put her gift in a pink gift bag with some white tissue paper. He was trying his best, but needed a little help to make it just right. I pulled all the paper out and placed the box to the side. The receipt had fallen out too. “Whew! Don’t need your mom seeing this. I forgot that was still in there.”

“Look what I got her,” I proudly said as I opened the little white box. Inside was a heart-shaped locket. It was very old looking, antique-like and one of a kind which is what my wife preferred. She’s not much into jewelry, but I knew when I stopped into the hole in the wall store, that I would find something there she loved.

“Ohhh that is pretty, mom will love it!” Evan said with a smile on his face as he inspected it. Then he opened it to look inside.

And that’s the last thing I remember before the Event. I think I started just referring to it as the Event, because I didn’t know how else to describe it. An extremely bright flash of light followed by an intense ringing. At first I thought it was a bomb, but there was no heat, no shockwave, no destruction. No, this was something else entirely. I yelled upstairs to my wife who was “sleeping” waiting for breakfast in bed. There was no answer. I frantically ran up calling for her and checking every inch of the house. It’s like she had just disappeared without a trace. Her phone was plugged in next to the bed, but she was just gone. She hadn’t left had she? “I would’ve noticed that,” I said to myself. I called my parents, but it rang and rang; no answer. Tried the neighbors too, but same story. I had to know if anyone else had seen what I saw. I ran outside to see if I could find some clues. Our cars were in the garage. This was strange. The opener still worked, lights were on in the house. The power hadn’t gone out. There were no neighbors, no traffic, no people at all except for Evan and me. I soon realized that no other people were anywhere to be found. Evan never left my sight from that moment on.

“What is going on here!?” I thought. The car was working so we drove around town. As we surveyed the area, driving very erratically as I couldn’t stop shaking, I noticed the first few incidents of what could be called destruction. There were cars that appeared to have crashed into buildings and light posts. Some were on the side of the road; most were smoking and crumpled like they had been in an accident. But the people were nowhere to be found. What would you do if people were suddenly gone? “This has to be a dream,” I said aloud. “No way this can really be happening!

” We drove by the strip mall where I had purchased the locket just 3 days earlier, but I did not see the shop. “That’s weird,” I thought. “I know that shop was on Main St.” I thought more about that day I stopped in there and found the gift. Yes, it was right after work. I stopped in and looked around. The shop owner came over and asked if I needed help.

“May I help you find something sir?” the owner asked.

“Umm no not really, I’m just browsing. But thank you.”

“Very good let me know if I can be of assistance.” he said.

“I will do that thank you.” The man turned to walk back to the desk at the front of the store. “Actually sir…,” I interrupted his walk back. “I’ve driven by this strip a million times before and never noticed this shop. Is it new?”

“No not at all. I’ve been here for years I assure you.”

“Interesting, must’ve not been paying that close of attention.” The shop owner I did notice was very well dressed. He was swarthy and wore a white suit. It looked very good on him I recall. White suits don’t look good on too many people I remember thinking to myself when I first walked into the store. He was tall and extremely well spoken. Something about him was very trusting.

Suddenly I snapped out of that flashback and I was driving again. Shouldn’t be daydreaming with my son in the car, but I was still freaked out from the events of moments ago. We drove back to the house still having not seen any other humans anywhere around town. The eggs I have been frying on the stove were burnt to a crisp as, during the ensuring chaos, I forgot to shut off the burner. Luckily a fire didn’t start. I looked over to the table and saw the receipt. I inspected the address:

Antique Collectibles , 531 South Main St.

I could tell my face looked confused. I don’t think that address exists in that strip mall. I grabbed the receipt and locket and we immediately got back in the car and headed back.

“525…527…529…and that’s it. There is no 531!” I shouted. “What on Earth is going on here? Am I crazy? Am I losing my mind?! I know I had this conversation with this man.”

I drove around with Evan for another hour or so, just racking my brain for a possible answer to what was transpiring. I still haven’t seen any people, just more vehicles abandoned all over the place. I suspiciously looked over at the locket on the front seat wondering if it was somehow connected to this mess. I pulled over to the side of the road and examined the locket more closely. “Just a regular heart-shaped locket,” I thought to myself.

* * *

Evan’s all grown up now, he says he doesn’t remember much from those early years. He tries to make me feel better about my feelings of guilt that he didn’t have a normal life.

“This is all I know dad. We get up everyday and just …make it work. We make it work.” He’s very wise, but woefully naïve. I explained these events to him and tried to be a good teacher since it’s just us now. It’s been around 5000 days now since the Event, but I honestly can’t remember exactly when I started a written record of our life, since it took a few years to come to grips with what was happening. I encouraged my son to also write down his thoughts about the event. He won’t let me read his story yet, but there’s an excerpt below:

I remember times before my father got sick, before he blamed himself for all the hurt this family has been through. I remember the times with my mother and him before her death. Those were happy times. Dr. Sridhar Patel and I are hoping the heart-shaped locket will eventually remind him of the true nature of the Event and free him out of this endless loop of delusion. Dr. Patel is one of the nation’s most top psychiatrists and an expert when it comes to confabulation and related brain injuries.

What actually occurred on Mother’s Day 2006 was that my parents and I were driving back from dinner; he reached down to grab the white box out of the pink bag with the white tissue paper. As my mother opened the box, took out the locket and proceeded to open it, my father took his eyes of the road to see her reaction. In that split second, we were hit head on and there was a huge flash of light and ringing that I can still hear to this day. I remember waking up in a hospital where the doctors and my grandparents broke the news to me that my mother had died instantly in the accident, but my father would thankfully recover.

He just has a different recollection of that day.