Stolen December

It was a very chilly -12 degree winter night in the month of December. The date if I recall was the 23rd, and the time I believe was between midnight and 3 am. I was with a search party hoping to recover a desperate family’s most desired Christmas present. The present that we are looking for I must regrettably inform you is their lost young and only son. He will be known by the name of Maximilian Rolland. Max is no older than 8 years young, barely able to ride a bike. To be honest all the little boy wanted for Christmas until recently was a brand new bike from the local department store. It was only $200.00 and he was sure that Santa would bring it to him if he behaved well enough. All he wanted now of course was to be brought back home to his parents alive and safe. The sad truth is that he knew Santa wasn’t real, and his parents he believed could not even come close to being able to afford the bike he was dreaming about. Little Max however, wouldn’t and couldn’t let his parents know that his belief in Santa had gone many a year ago. He knew that the only thing that kept his family moving on was Santa and his belief that Santa did in fact exist. The joy on Max’s little face every Christmas morning was unforgettable to his parents. Now that he was gone and seemed destined to never return, that’s all his parents had left was the faint and distant belief that maybe, somehow, in some way, Santa would be able to bring their little Max home to them safe and in one piece.
This story really started about eleven or some odd days ago here in the year of 2013. You may think that eleven days wasn’t too long ago, but I assure you, when you can’t go back to fix one small mistake that lead to your only son, only child being taken from you, eleven days can seem like at least an eternity or more. A family in such misery as the Rolland family lives in a quiet little town in Minnesota by the name of Raymond where everyone knows everything about everyone else. The one odd thing is that no one had any clue who took Max or why he was taken. The Rolland family unfortunately didn’t know any of this information either. All they knew was that their only son had been taken from him and there were no signs or clues of him ever being returned to them.
The Rolland family had been planning to go on this family vacation to Larch Lake in northern Minnesota. Finally they had enough time and money saved up over the 3 years that they had been planning to go. Unfortunately someone found out they were leaving and that someone was not a good someone by any means. They knew that this someone that found out where they were going was the one who took their son Max, but they did not know why they took Max of where they took him.
The Rolland Family used to own most of Kandiyohi County Minnesota for about 22 years. That all ended however, when Max was born. His parents Juniper and Stephon decided to sell what parts of Kandiyohi County when they found out they were expecting. So all in all they sold their part of the county, which was over half, for about 30 million dollars per acre. Of course, you know when young Max was born they spent it all on him. They used a descent sum of their money to buy their new son Max best crib, the best formula and food, the best toys, the best everything. Once he became the age of 4 however, Max’s parents decided to put the remainder of their money into a trust fund that Max would inherit if anything should ever happen to his parents.
Now both of Max’s parents put on the appeal that they were some of the poorest parents in the county and maybe even the state. The odd thing is in this small town where everyone knew everything, no one had any idea why Max’s parents put on this appeal, not even Max knew. He thought that they were in more poverty than any of the other families in the town.
Max’s clothes even showed how much in poverty his family was. He only owned four pairs of jeans, all had patches in the knees, and of course other spots that I will choose not to mention. His shirt were all tattered and torn, except for one of course, but that was only to be worn to church on Sundays and only a few other special occasions. He also has one very nice pair of pressed and ironed black chords that he wore to church and special occasions as well. His socks, he owned two pair… one of them was a nice black pair of socks and the other had holes in them and barely were held together. He owned along with his socks, two pairs of shoes, both matched his socks in most every way. One pair was shined every Sunday before church in the morning and had brand new laces and looked brand new every time they were worn for church. The other pair matched his other pair of socks. They were barely held together, most days Max needed to put a piece of string or occasionally twine to hold them on his feet. This was because he had no shoelaces for this second pair of shoes and they were at least 10-40% duct tape or scotch tape, sometimes even super glue or if they fell apart at school he used good old Elmer’s White Glue.
In reality his family wasn’t as poor as they seemed to be. They were still quite the opposite; they only appeared to be so poor so they could keep as low of a profile as possible. No one really quite knows why they want to keep a low profile, but they were none the less. The only problem is that someone found out who the Rolland family was. Not the poor version of the Rolland family, but the real version that no one was able to find out till recently.
They were worse than any government agency or terrorist group ever could dream of being. If you were targeted, that was the end of you. No one would know anything happened to you, there would be a cover story that would be told to the public or those who knew you and no one would ask any questions. The worst thing is when they target you, you won’t know that you’re a target until it’s too late and you won’t ever able to find out who targeted you or why. Well, at least no one has been able to find so far, and it is beyond doubtful that anyone ever will.
Now then, back to the beginning shall we….
As I said before I was with a search party on December 23rd at about 1:30 am. It was a bright full moon out and seemed like it was daytime, but for some reason everywhere we looked for clues to find Max, it ended up being than the blackest night. We were just deciding where the last place we were going to look was and where we were going to look the next day. After we were done looking for the night or morning, if you like that better, I was going to set up camp while everyone else was going back to their homes.
“Hey, ok guys, everyone gather around, lets figure out where everyone is going to look.” Clever Johnson announced to the rest of the group.
“I’ll take down by the river, “said one voice.
“Yea and I’ll head over to the road, and look for signs over there,” said another voice.
“OK, that all sounds good. We also need a few people to search the trails that go across the river.” Clever Johnson stated acting as if he was in charge even though he had the least experience out of everyone there.
“I’ll do it, but I’m going alone. I don’t want to end up losing someone while I’m out there looking for Max.” I said in quite a cocky tone.
I wasn’t cocky, I just knew my way around back there and I didn’t want someone else getting lost because they didn’t know their way around. I have lived up here for about 12 years now and I usually spent my summers across the river since it was free land that anyone had rights to go on. I did of course have to ok it with the DNR and the local police department first. As well, I also had to sign numerous waiver forms stating that if anything happened to me it was only my fault and in no way the fault of the town, county, or state.
“Hey, I think we found something!” Clever Exclaimed to everyone within earshot.
All of a sudden, a mad rush of everyone who had heard Clever rushed over to see what they had found. Much to everyone’s disappointment, they didn’t find much of everything. A few broken branches, some prints in the snow that couldn’t be told whether they were human or animal prints, and some bark on the ground that had been knocked off a few trees.
“It’s nothing everyone,” I explained, “just a few markings that could be made by numerous different animals native to these woods, nothing here is significant to finding young Max.”
So the main group which Clever led was looking in the area between the road and river, a few people searched for clues down by the river, and the rest, besides me, were looking up on the edge of the road. I took the area across the river, alone, as I said I would. I didn’t want to go alone for the reason I said however. I only wanted to go alone for one reason, it was a reason that I knew and only I knew. My reason was because I knew something that no one else knew and that no one else could ever find out if I could help it. If the others found out my reason it would be the end of me, no more and no less, just the end.
Eventually everyone stopped looking and started back towards town along the road. They told me that they were planning on starting the search again at about noon or maybe a little earlier or later. I was setting up camp about 4 miles out and the only way I knew they were all leaving was because they radioed me and let me know they were leaving and what the time was. I already knew what time it was of course thanks to my $2000.00 Swiss made watch. It was green with a black wristband and had a quartz screen. It was a beautiful watch, definitely handmade and worth every cent of the $2000.00 that I had spent on it.
After I finally got camp all set up I went back to the road to wait for my partners. They were scheduled to arrive at 4:51 am, not a second early and not a second late. They had 36 seconds to get there, and just when I thought they weren’t going to show, I saw the headlights of their vehicle. It was a beautiful vehicle; black spider rims, lime green with black flames, a body kit, and the most amazing spoiler you’ve ever seen. It moved so silently down the road that you could hear the crickets outside when the windows were rolled up. When I got in the car they sped off towards Canada, it was dead silent in the car, no one was talking and not even the wind blowing past the car at 106 mph could be heard. The silence lasted only briefly for once the road straightened out after about 5 miles of driving they turned on the scanner to listen for police and where they were located on our route to Canada.
After about 4 hours of driving and about 200 or so miles past the Minnesota Canada border we finally were at our destination. We were at a small little cabin or shack rather that was made up of about 4 rooms. There was a kitchen, dining room, and living room in one, a bathroom, and two bedrooms. We got the door unlocked and checked the place out for bugs and such since we had never been there before. After we made sure there were no bugs and came to the conclusion that it was safe to stay there we went to unlock the trunk. The trunk is where things started to go wrong.
When we opened the trunk to get our “cargo” out, it wasn’t there. Then out of nowhere, our “cargo” jumped out of the back seats and darted for the woods. Right away my partners jumped in the car and headed down the road after him, leaving me there alone with no motor transportation. I waited till my partners were just out of eye sight and then headed out. I followed the tracks of young Max for that’s where I was trying to get. Where ever Max was going I was going with him, I had to, I was his sole protector, and I was essentially his only family left. Max, however, didn’t know that, and neither did anyone else.
Eventually I caught up to Max after running in the 3 feet deep snow and blizzard like wind for 2 hours. Then we found a huge snow bank about 10 feet tall and made a quite decadent snow cave if I might say so myself. My partners went back to the cabin to find me gone, but I was nice enough to leave them a note, it read.
To whom they thought were my partners,

As you have found out and realized by now I have left. Where I have gone you will never find out and neither will anyone else. I have gone after Max alone and will expect no one to come after him or me. Just forget you ever met me, and forget you ever heard of Max or the Rolland family. I want you to in all aspects erase Max and his family from your memories entirely. Never speak of them or I ever again till the days you die, and even after don’t mention either of our names. For if you do decide to ever go against these guidelines that I have set forth, I will find you, and then it will be the end of all of you. I will pick you all off, one by one, silently and no one will ever find out.
Until you are misguided again,
Alabaster Micheleson

They read the letter, then got into their car, drove back to Minnesota and were never seen again. Max and I stayed in Canada as far as anyone knows, and we were never heard from or seen by anyone who could recognize us again. We had done the impossible, and erased ourselves from existence.