Just a F.A.Y.Z. » Places

         Jacob was at school when the whole thing happened, looking up, wide-eyed, at his teacher as she read them all a wonderful story about a caterpillar that wanted to eat everything. He really liked the story, and his heart skip a beat when the teacher disappeared and couldn't continue. For a moment, he almost thought that was part of the book, the whole disappearing thing, like when his mom used to do peek-a-boo with him, but when the teacher never came back to yell "surprise!" he knew it was something more serious.

Now he stands in the kindergarten room, looking around and wondering what he is supposed to do next. Some of the other children have already started crying, but Jacob won't let himself do that. He knows there has to be a reasonable explanation for why the teacher left them, like she went to the potty or something. But it just doesn't make sense that she would disappear so suddenly, right in front of their eyes. Jacob knows that's not how people disappear, unless they're a magician and he doesn't think his teacher knows any magic.

Jacob wanders out into the hallway, looking up and down at the other students who have wandered out of their classrooms. Everyone has the same confused look he imagines to be upon his face: eyebrows arched, mouth slightly open, and eyes wide. He looks up and down the hall again before taking a tentative step forward, wondering if this isn't some trick to see if he will disobey the teacher and leave the classroom when he wasn't supposed to. No one came to yell at him however, and he kept walking.

The first place he wanted to go was to his mother, but she worked outside of the little beach community and he had no way of getting to her. He decided to go home, a fifteen minute or so walk from school he did almost every day. On the way there, he saw many cars abandoned and crashed into things, as if their drivers had lost control but when he looked inside, no one was ever there.

He stopped in the center of town, where many other children had gathered and something compelled him to simply wait.