From My Notebook: The Disappearing Act

This is a short story I wrote that’s inspired by the Biblical story in Luke 2:41-50.

They were having that age old argument that all couples have at least once in their life. “I thought he was with you!” The pointing of fingers, the worry making the defenses sharp; “how was I supposed to know he wasn’t with you? You were off with the rest of the men these last couple of days!” We’ve all heard something like this before, the anger caused by fear when it’s discovered that a child is missing. After the initial shock of finding that he wasn’t with the other, the two parents, trying to calm the flood of anxiety, began rationalizing with themselves. “He’s probably with Jacob’s family, they’re always doing something together, or maybe he’s with his Aunt Rebecca.” At that, they split up to cover more ground; asking all of us, more and more anxiously, if we’d seen their son. With every shake of the head, every “no, I haven’t seen him since we left” his parents grew more and more desperate. Whispers started to go around of roadside robbers, deciding that a young boy would sell good on the slave market. There was no denying that the boy was strong, having worked with his father in carpentry from the day he could walk. It didn’t take a trained eye to see that he could work hard. “That’s it. We’re going back!” The boy’s mother, tears beginning to fall, almost hysterically sobbed. It was a final act of desperation, to turn back; but the city was the last place any of us had seen him. A few of us volunteered to take the couple day’s journey back with them; but the rest of us had homes to get to, and children that were tired of being on the road, and we continued on without them. News reached us a few days later that they were successful in finding him. He had stayed behind in the city, doing the last thing anyone would expect a twelve year old to do when free of his parents; he was in the temple, talking with the teachers of the law! His parents had searched for him three days throughout the entire bustling city, and it’s said that when they found him, the only thing he had to say for himself was “didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”