Where Is He? It was a gloomy humid summer day. It was our first day back since we got home from Hawaii. My bag was still half unpacked, and I didn’t know when I was going to finish it. Dirty clothes were splattered under my bed, my toothbrush was nowhere to be found, and I’m pretty sure I lost my computer charger on the plane. I told my brother I’d go on a run with him when we got back home. We hadn’t worked out in a little while so we thought a light jog would get us back in the routine. There are multiple trails we like to go on behind our house, but I thought we could switch it up a little and make it kind of a race. My 13-year-old brother Paul and I both got new sneakers from the mall while on vacation and wanted to test them out. I got blue and black Nikes that were slightly big, but they were too cool to pass up even though they didn’t quite fit me. Paul wasn’t a Nike guy and got gray adidas. We changed into running clothes and planned where we were going to run. “Why don’t I go through Waverly Park, and you could go on the main road and meet up at the end.” I asked “Oh, so you don’t want to be seen while you run like a penguin,” Paul said with a subtle chirp. “Save the trash talk for when I beat you in the end,” I chimed in. I made my way to the park in my black Lulu shorts and blue Adidas shirt. I popped my air pods in and blasted some of my favorite EDM songs. I only saw a couple people through my journey, but I didn’t stop to say hi to anybody as I was trying my best to beat Paul. I felt like I was flying and in reality, I was because when I got to the meet up spot, Paul wasn’t even there and I couldn’t see him anywhere close. I knew I was fast, but not this fast. I waited a couple more minutes for him to catch up, I mean he probably got distracted or got a cramp like he usually does. I gave it about 10 minutes and was annoyed he wasn’t here. He knows where to meet up and I had plans to meet up with my friends after, so the clock was ticking. I shot him a text that read, “Dude where are you, I told Griffin I’d go to his house after this, so I’m headed home.” I walked home still blasting music giving a couple head checks to see if Paul would pop up, but still nothing. When I got home, there was no response and I tried to ring him up. “Hey how was it?” my mom asked. “It was great, I think I smoked Paul because he still isn’t back,” I proudly replied. “WHAT, you mean you guys weren’t running together? Have you seen the news recently, there was a kidnapping earlier this week.” she frantically said.
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