Into the Forest and all the Way Through

by Cynthia Pelayo

Your father claims you are a runaway we later learned he picked you up on your last day of days, the next sun there would be no questions of where you were. There would be no panic surveillance equipment dotted the house. Cameras spotlighted your life in your bedroom, and at your job he filmed. Soon after you were last seen your father sold his two trucks. The day you were last seen the surveillance equipment in your dwelling failed, for a man who recorded your every blink and turn, your every utterance within your household, and on the day for you to disappear, for the devices to die would seem coincidental? Suspicious? He dismissed your abrupt departure as that of a teen fleeing to California in search of sun-kissed dreams. After he was released from prison, for offenses other than yours he grimaced in your sister’s face and growled: “Be at the deathbed…I will give you the honest answers you want to hear” Name: Alissa Turney Missing from: Phoenix, Arizona Race: White Age at disappearance: 17 Missing since: 2001 Investigating agency: Phoenix Police Department, 602-262-6011

what good is checking on your neighbors if you are unwilling to save them?

It remains a mystery, they say but there is no mystery when someone knows, and others won’t speak,

Free days from school are days made for magic they are days for friends and sleepovers, and spending hours laughing over one another’s inside jokes, free days from school are for risks, these days are for exploring and adventure, trust that we will be home on time because tomorrow there’s school, of course, and another day, and we did not plan that once we climbed up this bridge and held out our phones and broadcast to the world these images we found beautiful that there would be someone watching, then us watching him watching us, then we turned the phone to him because maybe that would ease our tension, maybe he would go away, but he did not go away, he pointed, and said “Down the bridge” and down the bridge we sure did go, and into a sick place we were taken, down past our route, and down past our lives, and awful things happened there, wrists wrapped, and only each other’s eyes to look into before we knew we were never going back Name: Abigail “Abby” Williams Remains found: Delphi, Indiana Race: White Age at disappearance: 13 Year missing: 2017 Case status: Unsolved Investigating agency: Delphi Indiana Police Department, 765-564-2345 Name: Liberty Rose German Remains found: Delphi, Indiana Race: White Age at disappearance: 14 Year missing: 2017 Case status: Unsolved Investigating agency:

Before the drops of blood outside the gas station there was a son, and an engagement, she would never willingly leave either of them behind, a little boy in shorts looking out from a window pane, saying “My mom’s at some- where” and he too will know the pain that she is somewhere, and it is neither here nor there flitting under gas station lights, the smell of gasoline cool spring air, and head lights just out there, so close, and she was at work and mommy was supposed to be home by now, but awful things swim in the trunks of stranger’s cars syringes in a black box concealed, stranger found jury deliberated his depravity less than two hours, but with that sick stained smirk he still refuses to tell a boy where’s his mommy’s somewhere Name: Jessica Heeringa Missing from: Norton Shores, Michigan Race: White Age at disappearance: 25 Missing since: 2013

Children have arguments with their parents that’s what they do, but sometimes a child heads out the door in that anger, and fades into a memory. Grandmother and Grandfather’s house waited, but you were last seen walking, a little girl alone. Seven years. Is seven lucky? There is no luck in that years keep drifting, and your teddy bear can’t be found Name: Daffany Sherika Tullos Missing from: Jackson, Mississippi Race: Black Age at disappearance: 7 Missing since: 1988 Investigating agency: Jackson Police Department, 601-960-1234