Every story has its good parts, but no story can ever be good without the bad parts. People aren’t perfect and mistakes will happen, but it is through these mistakes that we learn, grow, and mature. It is because of the “bad” parts of a story, that the ending can be so good.
This is a story of mistakes, but it is not the mistakes that are important. It is what we learn from them.
Our story begins at a park. This could be any park anywhere. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is who is there. People matter, so let’s take a look at some of the people who will be part of this story. The kids and teenagers of Valley Baptist School have come here to get a much deserved break—at least the students think so—from the dictatorial rule of their teachers…no offence, Bro. Stowers. It was an afterschool event, edging on toward evening, the sun hanging very low in the sky and casting long shadows across the park.
Three of these students are close to graduation from High School. These three, young ladies all, are on the verge of blazing their way into adulthood with all the responsibilities and expectations that come with it. So this story, more than anyone else’s, is theirs.
They are good friends, and besides driving Bro. Stowers insane, they don’t get into too much trouble—and no one really believes Lily’s frequent pronouncements of imminent violence anyway…although, in this story, that may be about to change.
Alexandra is the brains of the outfit, smart—maybe too smart—but she’s going to need that towering intellect today. Daniela is the glue of this trio. Her winning smile and ability to make everyone feel included will be needed in what is about to happen. Then there’s Lily. She’s the muscle—though most believe she’s more talk than anything else—but today, in this story, she may need that strength.
These three, sitting at a park bench, were enjoying the nice spring evening, talking, chatting, laughing, and generally feeling good that High School was about to end and that they would finally graduate—though much to the surprise of everyone who knew Lily.
That’s when things started to go wrong. Daniela saw him first. “Here comes Luke,” she warned the other two. All three turned as Luke came running up, containing all the energy of a first grader.
“She’s gone!” he yelled, slamming to a stop before them. He stared up at the three seniors, his face pinched, and looking very much like a tiny pirate with that patch covering one eye.
“Whose gone?” Danielle asked, instantly worried.
“Melanie!” he hollered as if they should have already known.
The seniors exchanged confused looks. “Melanie’s here? Why is your sister here?”
“Mom dropped her off. She was playing over there and then some man took her.”
The three seniors glanced at each other, and Alexandra knelt down to look Luke in the eye. “Okay then, who took her?”
“I dunno. Some man.”
Lily sighed. “Yes, we got that part. What did he look like?”
“A big man!”
“That’s all you saw?” Alexandra pressed.
Luke considered. “I think he was fat. Yes. He was a fat man.” He turned suddenly and darted back toward the playground.
“Hey!” Lily called after him. “Where’re you going? Your sister is missing!”
Luke called back over his shoulder. “I told you about it, didn’t I? I’m going back to play!” And off he went, meeting up with Kaiden and Daniel, and then disappearing into the playground.
The three seniors stared at each other doubtfully. “We should call Bro. Gieseler,” Daniela said.
“Call him,” Alexandra agreed. They tried calling first Bro. Gieseler and then his wife. No answer from either of them.
“Now what?” Daniela asked. “Should we call the police?”
“Not yet,” Alexandra said. “We don’t even know if Melanie was really here or if she’s missing. Let’s find out what happened first. Maybe she just wandered off.”
They moved toward the playground together, looking for some sign of the missing girl. Mostly, the kids looked as if they were having fun. Izaya Shannon, Azaiah Martinez, and Daniel Espinoza were playing some sort of boyish game of tag with Levi Tittle, Jacen Baker, and Pete Bietle. It looked like it involved a lot of yelling and occasionally throwing sand at some of the girls, who wasted no time in throwing sand back at the boys.
Alexandra saw Ella McCarry nearby. “Ella,” she called, “have you seen Melanie?”
Ella shook her head. “I didn’t even know she was here,” she replied.
“Luke said that her mom dropped her off and some man took her,” Daniela explained.
Ella looked thoughtful. “I did see a little girl with a man, but he was skinny, not fat.”
“But you didn’t see if it was Melanie?”
“It’s getting too dark.” Ella waved toward the basketball court. “I saw them over there somewhere.”
Lily spoke up. “This man you saw. How skinny was he? Bro. Baker skinny or Bro. Stowers skinny?”
Ella put her thoughtful look back on her face. “No…not like them. More like…” Her face brightened. “More like Bro. Gerson!”
The seniors stared at Ella for a long moment, none of them able to find words to adequately respond to that declaration. Ella looked back all innocent like and Alexandra began to wonder if some elaborate joke wasn’t being pulled on them. “You can’t be serious,” she said.
Ella shrugged. “That’s what I saw.”
Lily, doing her best to keep a straight face and failing miserably, pointed. “You saw them over there?”
“Yes.”
The three seniors moved off to the dark spot that Ella had mentioned. They saw no sign of Melanie or a skinny, fat man—whatever that was supposed to look like.
“Maybe it wasn’t Melanie at all,” Lily suggested. “Ella wasn’t sure.”
“But she did see a little girl,” Daniela pressed. “I think we should keep looking.”
About that time, Trey, Isaiah Diaz, and Gerardo walked up. “Looking for someone?” Gerardo asked his sister.
Speaking of skinny people, Gerardo looked like he would have to run around in the shower just to get wet. Daniela, not exactly a candidate for Weight Watchers herself, responded, “We think someone might have taken Melanie.”
Trey looked concerned. “Do you know who?”
“No. Have you seen her anywhere?”
Trey turned and pointed to the complete opposite side of the park. “I saw someone with a little girl over there, but I wasn’t paying a lot of attention.”
The three seniors looked that way, but saw no one in the deepening gloom. “Do you know who it was?” Alexandra asked.
“I couldn’t tell from way over here, but I thought it was a woman.”
Alexandra shook her head. “Then it couldn’t be the one who might have taken Melanie. Luke told us that it was a big, fat man.”
Trey shrugged. “All I know is that the person I saw had long hair. I assumed it was a woman, but maybe it could have been a man.”
“Possibly,” Daniela mused. “And you’re certain that there was a little girl with this person?”
Trey shrugged again. “I saw them from far away,” he said, patiently as if talking to some child. Daniela thought about smacking him, then thought about having Lily do it—she’d enjoy it—but then decided to just let it go. She doubted it would make much of a difference. Trey continued, “But it certainly didn’t look like any fat man to me, and it’s the only child around Melanie’s size that I’ve seen at the park.”
“You’re trusting what Luke saw?” Isaiah asked.
“He’s the one who saw the man take her,” Alexandra replied.
“Yeah, but to him any man would look big and fat, wouldn’t they?”
“Well there’s what Ella said,” Lily explained.
“What did she say?” Isaiah asked.
The three seniors looked at each other again. “Never mind,” Alexandra hastened to say. “We’ll keep looking.”
“Okay,” Gerardo said, already beginning to walk away. “We’ll keep a look out too.”
“Thanks,” Daniela called after her brother.
The three seniors turned to each other. “Okay, here’s what we know,” Lily said, ticking her fingers off like points. “We know he’s a skinny, fat man that might actually be a woman with long hair—”
“Or a man with long hair,” Alexandra interjected.
Lily nodded. “Or a man with long hair who was seen on opposite ends of the park. So what do we do now?”
They saw Aidan and Makenna talking off to one side of the playground. “Maybe they know,” Daniela suggested, pointing.
The three seniors hurried over. The sun was dipping below the horizon and darkness had become much more prevalent. The park lights gave some illumination, but finding a little girl in the darkness was becoming harder and harder. They would have to hurry.
“Aidan,” Daniela called. “Have you seen Melanie Gieseler? We heard that someone might have taken her and we can’t get a hold of her parents.”
Aidan nodded. “I did see her. She was playing around the playground just a moment ago.”
The three seniors became excited. “You saw her? Just now?” Daniela asked, her voice rising.
“Well not just now,” Aidan corrected herself. “But not that long ago.”
Makenna pointed. “She was playing just over there.”
They all looked, but the only girls they could see were Gracie and Destiny who were being watched by Jazmin and Niki. But there was no sign of Melanie.
“Did you see anyone?” Alexandra asked. “A man or a woman that you didn’t recognize?”
“That I didn’t recognize?” Aidan repeated. “No. I didn’t see anyone.”
Makenna pursed her lips in thought. “I might have. There was someone standing in the shadows over by the bathrooms. He looked real suspicious.”
Once again, they all turned to look. The shadows around the bathrooms were deep, obscuring everything or anyone that might be lurking within. They watched for a moment when suddenly they spotted movement as a furtive form moved from one shadow to another. It was a person. No doubt about it. But they weren’t close enough to see who it might have been, nor could they see any definite shape to know if it was a fat man, a skinny man, a woman, or what.
“Come on!” Lily exclaimed, excited. “Let’s go see who it is!”
Daniela hung back and even Alexandra seemed reluctant. Lily rounded on them and put her hands on her hips. “Melanie might be there! Come on! What’s wrong with you two?”
“What if it is a really, really big man?” Daniela asked, biting her lower lip nervously.
“So?” Lily said. “There’s three of us, Danny!”
“Don’t call me that,” Daniela ordered. “You know I don’t like that.”
Lily grinned, that grin that would one day make her future husband squirm uncomfortably. It was her stubborn grin. That grin she got when she fully intended to dig in her heels and get her way and daring anyone to tell her different. “Now’s not the time to be a turtle,” Lily said, referring to Daniela’s joke of climbing under the chairs and claiming to be a turtle.
Daniela glared at her friend, trying to decide if it deserved a retort or not. She decided to take the high ground. “Fine,” she said. “We’re coming.”
Alexandra shook her head. “Do you know how many germs there are in park bathrooms?”
“Oh for goodness sake!” Lily cried, thoroughly exasperated. “We aren’t going inside!” She grabbed each by the arm and began dragging them toward the dark shadows around the back of the bathroom.
Despite Lily’s bravado, she slowed down when they neared. Now that they were close, they could see the dim form of someone standing deep within the shadows, dark and completely mysterious. However, whoever it was didn’t look overly big or fat. More like…scrawny and short.
Taking courage that she could stand up to whoever lurked within, Lily stormed over, fully intending to confront the stranger and make sure he didn’t have Melanie with him. Then she got a good look at the shadowy figure and exclaimed, “Ronnie! What are you doing lurking over here?”
Ronnie jerked, spun around and found three full sized High School senior girls bearing down on him. Few things could terrorize him, but that sight was one of them. But something else had him even more worried, so he squared his shoulders like a man deciding to walk to the gallows with dignity. “Lurking?” he demanded, trying to unswallow his tongue. “I’m not lurking!”
“You’re hiding in the shadows,” Alexandra pointed out, obviously relived that the stranger in the shadows was neither a stranger nor a big, fat man with long hair.
“I’m not hiding. I’m just standing here,” Ronnie protested.
“You’re hiding,” Daniella insisted.
Ronnie shrugged. “Okay. I’m hiding. Ashley has a water balloon, and for some reason she feels that her balloon and my face need to meet.” He shook his head. “Not interested.”
“You’re hiding from a girl?” Lily demanded, amused.
“Have you seen her?” Ronnie protested. “She’s like a barracuda or a piranha! Besides, she’s bribed Clint, Josh, Robert, and Kyle to help her—the traitors.”
Alexandra smiled. “You hit her with a balloon first, didn’t you?”
Ronnie looked suddenly uncomfortable. “Maybe,” he admitted. “What’s it to you?”
Daniella interrupted. “We’re looking for Melanie. Did you see anyone take her?”
Ronnie shrugged. “I didn’t see anyone take her. There was a man though. The only thing I noticed was that he had a beard—I think—but I didn’t see Melanie.”
The three seniors exchanged suffering looks. Why couldn’t everyone see the same thing?
“Where did you see this man?” Daniella asked.
He waved vaguely toward the parking lot. “Over there somewhere.”
The three young ladies left Ronnie to his lurking and moved toward the parking lot. Each felt time was running out. They had to find Melanie quickly or call the police and report what they knew. But what did they know? They were looking for a skinny, fat man with long hair, who might actually be a woman with a beard. That description would as likely as not get them in trouble with the police.
They met Ashley and her posse on the way toward the parking lot. Other than the aforementioned boys, Lexi had attached herself to the group as well and each was armed with a water balloon. Alexandra, without saying anything, just pointed to the bathrooms.
They scurried off. Soon the three seniors heard a yelp, a splash, another splash and then several more in rapid succession. Finally, angry muttering came from that direction accompanied by loud, triumphant laughter.
The three began hunting through the parking lot, looking for any sign of Melanie, and then, all at once, Daniela gasped and pointed. Sure enough, there stood a big man with a little girl’s hand held in his own. The man’s back was turned and he stood in near darkness, his features obscured, but a beam of light from a passing car briefly illuminated the little girl.
There was no doubt. It was Melanie.
The man didn’t look fat, didn’t have long hair, and was turned so they couldn’t see if he had a beard or not, but all three were convinced that they had found the man who had taken Bro. Gieseler’s daughter.
The girls moved back into the shadows. “What do we do?” Daniela asked, her voice a soft whisper.
“We get her back!” Lily said fiercely, a wicked gleam in her eye.
“Are you crazy?” Alexandra demanded. “Wait,” she said, holding her hands up. “Don’t answer that. We already know.”
“We should get my brother and some of the other guys,” Daniela argued, looking nervous. “No way we should be doing this by ourselves,” she finished.
Lily shook her head. “He could be gone by the time we get back. Look at him. He looks like he’s looking for his keys. As soon as he finds them, he could be gone.” She cast around, looking for a weapon, and found a discarded baseball bat someone had left behind. She snatched it up and turned to her friends. “Look, I’ll hit him and then you get Melanie, okay?”
The taller girls stared at Lily aghast. “You are crazy,” Daniela muttered.
“This is our only chance,” Lily insisted. “Do you want to tell Bro. Gieseler that you let someone take his daughter?”
That produced worried looks on the other two girl’s faces. Alexandra worried her lip. “Okay,” she finally agreed. “Let’s do it. You hit him and we’ll get Melanie. Hit him hard,” she said, obviously worried that the man might give chase once they had Melanie.
Lily’s grin reappeared. “Oh, I intend to. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a long time.”
Neither of the other girls knew how to respond to that, so they just turned toward the shadowy man and Melanie. Lily got a tighter grip on the bat and then ran forward, the bat swinging back over her head, ready to deal a tremendous blow to the kidnapper’s head. She let out a yell and brought the bat down with crushing force toward the man’s head.
But the man spun around like a viper, snatched the bat out of the air with one hand and used the bat to pull Lily forward all in one motion. Lily let out a strangled yelp of fear, even more pronounced as she finally saw who she had nearly brained.
“Lily!” Bro. Gieseler roared, “Are you trying to kill me?”
“N-n-no!” she stammered, trying to regain some of her composure. “Someone kidnapped your daughter and—” Lily trailed off as Melanie, standing by her father, looked up curiously at her. She tried again. “We thought someone took Melanie, and we couldn’t get a hold of you, and—”
“Who’s we?” Bro. Gieseler demanded.
Lily pointed to Alexandra and Daniela who had only just then emerged from the darkness behind her. Daniela tried to explain, “Luke told us that a man had taken her.”
“What man?”
Daniela stopped talking. What would she say? That a skinny, fat man with long hair—that could be a woman with a beard—had taken Melanie when she had obviously been with the father the whole time?
Bro. Gieseler glared at all of them. “Please be more careful next time,” he said. He took Melanie by the hand and walked off leaving three very chagrined girls watching after them in his wake. Lily noted that he took the baseball bat with him.
Mistakes. A series of mistakes and assumptions. That’s what had led to this end of this story. From everyone’s perspective, everyone had done the right thing and told the truth as far as they understood it. But not everything is what it appears, and making assumptions on limited information is never wise. We are all prone to making mistakes, so perhaps we should learn to be more lenient toward others when they make mistakes. Maybe, we could learn to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Proverbs 17:9 says, “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.”
About that time, Luke came running up to the three seniors. “Did you find my sister and the man who took her?” he demanded.
Alexandra looked down and smiled. “We sure did,” she confirmed.
“Was I right then?” Luke wanted to know. “Was he big and fat?”
THE END