The Vanishing - Ron Mueller

The Vanishing

The high school halls were no longer safe. Three bullies controlled the toxic atmosphere that threatened the young women as well as anyone else that they did not care for. Since the classrooms were the only safe environment, there was always a rush to get to the next class.

The three bullies almost always cornered some young lady and gave her a hard time between classes.

Jesse was in a situation that seemed to disregard logic. In school he faced three bullies that seemed to run free in insulting and antagonizing the young women and in bullying anyone who stood up to them.

He was one of the few that stood up to them and usually won out. They were constantly threatening to corner him when he was not in the school hall and would not have the protection of the school security officers.

He focused on his studies, and he was good enough to be on the football and basketball team. He had worked hard to get on the varsity basketball team. When he made the team, he decided to buy a new set of basketball shoes.

He had not expected that the afternoon that he left home with the money he had saved for the shoes would be the last time that he would see his mother and sister.

He was walking briskly to the sporting goods store where the shoes that he wanted were on sale. On the way home, he looked ahead and saw three large figures accosting a woman who was struggling against them. The three were wearing red bandanas and looked rather formidable. He felt that he had to intervene and shouted out that they should stop.

The shout stopped the action long enough for the young woman to run off.

They, however, turned and began to chase him. When they turned, he realized the three were the bullies from the hallways of his high school. He knew he was in trouble.

He was surprised how fast they were as they caught up with him and began to beat him. They repeatedly shouted that they were going to beat him to death.

It seemed to him that they were going to achieve their goal but then a police car turned on their siren and flashing red lights. He did not wait but ran as fast as he could away from the scene.

A light rain seemed to be the weather's attempt at making him feel even worse than he already did but it did seem to moisten his bloody nose, but it also slowly turned him into a walking wet sponge.

He decided that he needed to disappear so that his situation did not spill over and affect his mother and sister. He made his way out of Cincinnati toward the east.

He randomly decided where on the East Coast he was going and ended up in Virginia Beach. Their he got the help that he needed, and he earned a high school diploma and became an IT programmer.

He felt that he now could reconnect with his family but when he tried, he found that they no longer lived in Cincinnati.

Little did he know that Alex Evercrest had taken on a missing person's case of which he was the focus. She was on his trail and would eventually find him and reconnect him with his loved ones.

The three bullies were not only bullies, but also drug distributors for a local drug dealer. Alex was on the road to reuniting Jesse with his family, but the twist was that she had uncovered a wide network of high school drug pushers that she focused on disrupting.

The drug pusher runs. Alex and her team follow. The drug pusher dies.

The happy ending is on two fronts. The bullies are in prison and their boss dead.

Alex reunites Jesse with his mother and sister on a fishing trip that she hosts for the occasion.