Page 7 of Diluted Truths
“To confirm, there was no way Joey or Nancy would be able to unlock the door on their own?”
“Yes, that’s correct. The police assumed the abductor must have done it when they entered the room, but no one can explain why,” she answered as she began to fidget with her hands, showing her anxiety and fear.
Taking the cue, I knew there was something that wasn’t being shared in regards to the closet door. “Do Nancy or Joey know how the door came to be opened?”
“They both have a… well, I call it a theory,” Janice mumbled as she tried to reveal as little as possible.
I could understand her hesitancy to share what had happened, but I needed the full story. “A theory?”
Janice deflated as she began on the story her children had concocted concerning the closet and what was found in it. “Both Nancy and Joey said that it was the shadow that opened it.”
“The shadow?”
“Yes. I never told the Police this because I knew it would only add to the hysteria that has surrounded the case. Nancy and Joey have been talking about a shadow that comes through the closet to visit them. It happened shortly after Carter left. I assumed it was a coping mechanism for losing their father, like an imaginary friend. Right before Joey disappeared, the stories they shared about the shadow became darker. Joey stated the shadow was planning on taking him away to his home and that the shadow was showing him dreams about people he didn’t know. It was after one of these stories that I saw the drawing in the back of the closet,” Janice explained as she retold the stories from her son.
“There were no discussions of drawings in the case file. Do you have a picture of this or a description maybe?” I asked as I dictated the conversation into my notebook.
“Yes, I do,” Janice began as she reached into her purse and pulled out a polaroid and handed it across the table to me. “Here it is. Please don’t publish this. It will only add fuel to the fire.”
As I took the photo into my hands, my breath hitched looking at what was drawn in Joey’s closet. The picture showed an upside down star, like a pentagram without the outer circle. There were three sixes drawn surrounding the top point of the star. The lines were not clean and looked as though they were drawn in a rush with someone’s hands. The paint color used was a sickening red that eerily resembled blood. I was awestruck looking at the nefarious symbol, but it wasn’t unfamiliar.
It felt like I had seen this before, but where?
Maybe from when I was growing up?
“Would you mind if I hold onto this?” I asked as I looked up to Janice sitting across from me.
“That’s why I brought it,” Janice explained as she gestured to the photograph. “I don’t know who drew it or when. Maybe my husband did as some sick prank at some point. The only thing that worries me is that ever since Joey reappeared, he has been drawing it, almost nonstop. I have hundreds of pages of that symbol drawn by my eight year old son.”
“Does he explain why he draws it?” I inquired.
“Only that he needs to be ready.” Janice signed. “Ready for what? I don’t know. I don’t think he does either.”
“Thank you, Janice. I know this is hard to discuss. I don’t want to make you relive anything you’re not ready for,” I stated as I again grasped Janice’s hands that were laying across the table. “If you need to stop, please let me know.”
“No, no, it’s okay. I want to tell you. I really think you’re the only person who can help,” she began. “Other than the drawing and the closet door, there was nothing off in the room. Nancy couldn’t explain where he had gone, but she’s so little, I would have been surprisedif she could. For the next five days, there was nothing. No sign of Joey, no leads as to where he was, no suspects. There was nothing.” Janice slowly looked up, trying to hold back tears. “Everyone was losing hope, I thought I would never see him again. Then I got the call. He was picked up in the middle of the street in a city here in Oregon. Eugene, to be specific. He had no memory of what happened and thought he had been gone for an hour.”
“Eugene? That’s where he was found?” I inquired, taken aback by the location the boy had reappeared in. Eugene was my home.
How had I not heard about this?
“Yes. I am not sure the exact street, it should be listed in the case file that the police put together. He was still in the clothes I had put him in the morning he disappeared,” Janice stated.
I could see Janice becoming overwhelmed recounting these events. While I still had countless questions, I knew they would need to be asked at a different time. Janice needed a moment to cool down, decompress from the nightmarish story she told me that was being told, which happened to be her reality.
I looked into the cafe to see Oliver making his way back towards us with the two kids in tow behind him.
“I got them both hot chocolates. I hope that was okay,” Oliver said to Janice as he took a seat by me. Joey and Nancy followed suit sitting in the chairs next to their mother.
Janice smiled at Oliver as she responded, “Thank you. I appreciate the help.”
“Miss Ophelia, are you going to write about me?” Joey asked me.
I looked at him as he sat and drank his hot chocolate. He was so young, too young, to be dealing with this level of trauma. “I am, but only the truth. I won’t lie about anything.”
He nodded as he looked to be contemplating my words. “Does that mean you’ll write about Toby?”
I looked up to Janice with confusion, hoping she could fill in the blanks. She mouthed, “The shadow,” to me in response. He was asking about his imaginary friend. Turning back to Joey I responded, “I’m not sure yet. Why do you ask?”
