Dad was positioned next to the bed when I brought it back to reality with Mom laying on top of it, as if sleeping. That peaceful state lasted barely a second before mom sat straight up and looked all around her in terror. “Abby!!”

Dad’s powerful arms wrapped around her and he kept repeating, “She’s ok. She’s safe. You’re safe too. Hannah, you’re safe.” Mom started crying, relief smoothing out her worried face.

“Josh. There were two men. They had guns and they were kidnapping Abby and me. What happened? How’d you get here? Where am I?”

Dad pulled away a little and looked at mom, tears rolling down his face and a smile so big that I’d thought it would split his face in two. The real difference was in his eyes. For the first time that I could remember, there wasn’t any sadness in them. Even in times of great happiness, there always seemed to be a part of dad that was sad, wishing that mom could be there to share in the joy. Now that she was here, everything was right in his world again. He didn’t have to hold a part of himself back anymore.

“You’re home, Hannah. That’s all that matters. You’re home and you’re safe.”

Mom looked around the room until her eyes found Uncle Magnum. “Paul? What happened to your hair and when did you grow that mustache? I barely recognized you.”

Wiping his eyes with sleeve, Paul whispered, “I’ve missed you sis.”

Turning back to dad, mom took a closer look at his face and runs her finger slowly through his hair and lets her fingers trail down his face as her eyes get bigger with shock. “Josh. You have grey at your temples. You’re older than when I left you this morning. Paul’s changed too. Was I in an accident? Have I been in a coma?”

“Something like that, Hannah. It’s a little more complicated, but we can figure all that out later. It’s so good to have you back.” He leans in again and hugs her fiercely. Paul comes forward too now and joins them in the hug.

“How long, Josh? How much did I miss?”

Dad doesn’t answer her right away, so she adds, “I need to know.”

“Thirteen years, honey.”

“Oh.” A single tear slips down the side of her face and she goes quiet for awhile. Dad and Paul sit there, letting the idea sink into her head. “Thirteen years. So, this is Abby’s room? She all grown up, isn’t she?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I been watching all this from the foot of the bed in R1. At the mention of my name, I get up and walk to the doorway where I shift back to reality and take a step inside. Mom’s eyes catch the movement and we stare at each other. I’m scared out of my mind and I don’t know what to do. I’ve dreamed of this moment for years and it was never this hard in my dreams. There was always a joyful reunion, not this fear and uncertainty.

Mom’s face breaks out into a smile as she makes the connection between her little Abby and the almost adult standing before her now. “Oh my God! You’re so big.”

“Is that your way of saying she’s fat?” I was going to punch Uncle Magnum later for that, but then mom beat me too it.

“Stow it, Malph!”, she said as she punched him in the arm. She had good technique and Uncle Magnum was left rubbing his sore arm. He never stopped grinning though.

“Don’t listen to him, Abby. You’re beautiful.”

Suddenly, I’m on the bed, sitting next to her and we’re holding each other and all the uncertainty and pain are gone. My mind flashes back to all the reunions that I’ve watched over the past year when victims of human trafficking are returned to their families and I realize that this is what I’ve wanted all along. This moment. Being held again in my mother’s arms. It didn’t even matter that I was two inches taller than her now and couldn’t fit on her lap.

When the moment ended, we each dried our eyes and collected ourselves. Dad asked mom is she was hungry and her answer of, “I can’t remember the last time I ate”, set us all laughing.

As we all walked to the kitchen, mom asked, “How come I feel fine? Shouldn’t I have trouble walking because my muscles have deteriorated. That’s how it was for Johnny Smith and he’d only been in a coma for six years. Shouldn’t I need physiotherapy?”

No one else was answering her, so I explained, “You weren’t in a coma, mom. You were…uhm…frozen in time. You’re exactly how you were thirteen years ago. That’s the same outfit your were wearing when the men took us in the parking lot.”

We sat down at the kitchen table and I went through the whole explanation of my abilities. All the while, dad was busy making us pasta with sauce and I switched off with him to make a salad while he explained about the day that we were kidnapped and the theory that she had been taken by human traffickers.

“This whole time, you though I was being held prisoner?”

“Yes. Until Abby found you this morning, we thought that it was either that or that you’d been killed. You’ve been legally dead for almost nine years.”

I set the table and brought out the food and we continued to talk and bring mom up to date. She was touched when dad explained how Paul and her parents had essentially moved in with us to help out after she disappeared and felt awful that we’d have to go through all the pain of hunting for clues for a ghost.

Mom looked over at me and cupped my face in hands. “I still can’t believe all of this. Yesterday I was the mother of a four-year-old girl and now she’s almost eighteen.”

“Yes. It feels that way for me too. They grow up so quickly.”

Dad’s matter of fact delivery couldn’t be denied and Paul started laughing. Pretty soon, we’d all joined in and when mom had herself under control, she turned to dad and with a stern and imperious voice said, “You mock my pain!”

“Life is pain, highness.” Paul automatically added the follow-up Princess Bride line and when he caught my surprised look, he simply said, “It’s her favorite movie too, you know.”