Face on the Milk Carton

By: Mandi Jo Baxendale

          At Janie Johnson’s school, the faces on the milk cartons of the kidnapped children never meant anything to the students. But, that one day when Janie looks at the child’s face on the milk carton, everything changes.

          The little girl with her hair in the high pigtails and the white collar polka-dot dress reminds Janie of herself as a child a little too much. When she takes a closer look, she realized the kidnapped child is her! Thoughts race through her mind. Was I really kidnapped? Are my parent’s horrible people? Are my parents my actual parents? As Janie starts to think about it, she faintly remembers going for a ride with someone and never going back home. She is going to get to the bottom of this, no matter how far it takes her. And maybe, she takes her searching a little too far.

          Janie tells no one about this little secret of hers, except for her “boyfriend” Reeve. Maybe, that wasn’t such a good idea after all. Reeve doesn’t seem too interested in all of this kidnapping, drama stuff, he even told her he is going to break up with her if she didn’t stop this nonsense. And since Janie hasn’t told anyone else about this, all of her emotions get bottled up inside of her, causing her to have daymares, nightmares in the day. In her daymares she sees herself as a little girl again, sitting in the mall’s ice cream shop, and then it ends. But, she sees different images every daymare. Will Janie’s daymares tell her about her past, or will she tell herself the girl isn’t her and forget about it?