Love Song

Tommy and his parents walked back into their home, back from their New York City vacation sans Tanya. She convinced their parents to let her stay back with her friends.
Before going to New York City, Tommy had spent more time the boy across the street known as Matthew. They didn’t really have a lot in common, but he felt a connection to him. He felt like for the first time, he has a real friend.
So, when it came to pick a friend to buy a souvenir for, the first friend he thought of was Matthew. He knew that Matthew was learning to play the piano and loved music, so he bought him a music box he found in an antiques shop.
The shop owner told him that the box was made entirely by hand. On the top of the box, a treble clef was carved. When you opened the box, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata played. He was excited to give the present to Matthew, the only problem was that the box was missing it’s key part; a spinning mini piano. The shop owner said that the person who he bought it from brought it in that way. Tommy bought it anyway because he knew it was perfect.
There’s a park right around the corner that Tommy and Matthew spent a lot of time at. Tommy wanted to make giving his present to Matthew fun and not just hand it over. So, he decided to make it sort of a scavenger hunt. He wrote down clues and hid them in various sections of the park.
Later that day, he walked across the street to Mrs. Taylor’s house with his bike and rang the doorbell. Matthew answered, excited to see Tommy after the two weeks of him being in New York City.
“Get your bike,” said Tommy. “We’re going to the park.”
Matthew turned back into the house. “Grandma, can I go to the park with Tommy?”
Tommy heard Mrs. Taylor call out from in the house.
“Of course, be back before dark.”
“Oh, we won’t be that long, Mrs. Taylor.”
Matthew came out and went to the side of the house to get his bike. Together they rode their bikes to the park. As they rode, Tommy looked over at Matthew. He had a big smile on his face. Matthew’s smile made Tommy smile.
When they arrived, no one was at the park. They set their bikes on the grass and looked around. Matthew looked to Tommy, confused.
“What are we doing here?” he asked.
Tommy handed Matthew a piece of folded up paper. “This,” he answered.
Matthew unfolded the paper. It was a hand drawn map of the park. The two of them were in the exact spot where the map started.
Tommy watched as Matthew’s face lit up. Matthew started following the map curiously and Tommy followed. The next spot was in the play area. “Dig,” the map said.
Matthew dug furiously. He came across another map. The map took him to the swings; the last swing on the right to be exact. Once again, the map said to dig. He dug under the swing. Matthew had to dig deeper this time, but he still found the same thing; another map.
This time, the map led Matthew to the dugout of the baseball diamond. It instructed Matthew to look under the dugout bench. Under it, he found a present wrapped in newspaper. Matthew Grabbed it, ripped the paper and smiled brightly when he saw the music box. He opened it carefully wound it, and listened to the Moonlight Sonata. He didn’t even really seem to notice that the main piece was missing, either that or he loved it so much that he didn’t care.
“Thank you so much,” he exclaimed in excitement. “I love it.”
Tommy didn’t say anything, the two of them just walked back to their bikes and rode back home. But when they got home, the police were at Tommy’s house. They were parked halfway into the driveway and their lights were on, but the sirens weren’t sounding. Tommy was confused and said goodbye to Matthew before they split up. Tommy cautiously walked up to the door of his home. He had a bad, bad feeling.

***

Tommy’s older sister Tanya never came home from New York that summer. They searched the city for weeks, but eventually the police gave up and so did the Brooks family. Tommy’s father was hit the hardest by the loss, because he was the one who convinced Mrs. Brooks to let their daughter stay in the city with her friends, who all also went missing and never turned up.
About a week after the family gave up the search for Tanya, they moved out of their house across the street from Mrs. Taylor and Matthew. The boys had no warning and no chance to say a proper goodbye. Even though the Brooks weren’t moving out of town, the boys would be going to different schools now and will most likely not see each other again.