KIDNAPPED – C2012 JoJo

What can be worse I wonder, than finding out your parents aren’t really your parents? Yes, there is something worse than that, finding out your parents whom you’ve loved and trusted all your life, are… kidnappers, who stole you from a pram parked outside a store, while the mother popped in to buy a loaf of bread.

My house is swarming with policemen, bearing a warrant for my mother’s arrest. She’s standing there, arms handcuffed behind her back, looking at me with tears pouring down her cheeks, eyes begging me to understand. To forgive.

I’m a 12 year old boy – how am I supposed to understand the turmoil that’s going on right now? How can I forgive the lie that’s been my entire life, the sense of horror I feel to know my mother was capable of committing such a dreadful act, condemning a woman to 12 years of hell, not knowing what happened to her baby? Not knowing if he was alive or dead? Being well treated or abused? How could my mother do that to another woman?

Just then Dad walks in from work. I try to rush forward to run to him “Dad…” but a policeman clamps a firm hand on my shoulder. “No lad, don’t. Be still. I promise you everything is going to be fine.”

How can anything ever be fine again? I’m about to lose the only parents I have, the only home I’ve ever known. I feel as if I’m drowning in a sea of anguish and despair.

I look at Dad and in his eyes I see… realization and that his most dreaded fears have become reality. I see pain and defeat. He knew – he knew all along what Mum had done, and lived this lie, every single day.

How many times had my Mum said to me “Johnny, you are just like your Dad?” “Johnny, you inherited your love of music from me.” Lies… lies …. all of it lies. The pain of it is almost unbearable. The people I loved most in my life are liars and kidnappers.

Another policeman steps forward. “Mr. Holstrom, you are under arrest …” the policeman goes on reading out the arrest warrant, and warning Dad that anything he says can and will be used as evidence against him, but I don’t listen. This can’t be happening to me – it just can’t – but it is.

Dad too is handcuffed, and the policeman escorts him and Mum to the car.

I try to follow. Once again, the same policeman holds me back. He leads me to the sofa, sits me down beside him and puts an arm around my shoulders. I bury my face into his shoulder and sob uncontrollably. He doesn’t say anything – just hugs me close and pats me gently.

I’m not Johnny Holstrom anymore – so who am I? What’s going to happen to me? Where am I going to live? What’s to become of me?

My whole world lies in ruins around me.
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