We were able to get the three of them into their house and sat them down at their dining room table. My brother poured them a class of wine to try to calm them to a point we could understand what had happened.

We sat with the neighbor, his wife and her sister while they told us what had happened.

The three of them set off that morning for a short trip to the wife’s brother’s house about three hours away. They were bringing him part of the family albums that were left by their parents. The neighbor’s wife and her sister promised to share the albums with their brother and decided to drive over for a visit and to deliver his part of the family photos.

They set off early in the morning and recall driving along and entering the main highway in route to the brother’s house. That was all they could recall. Later in the day about lunch time the three of them woke up in the car. Actually the two sisters woke up or came to in the car. The man, the neighbor, recalls either getting into or out of the car as the two women woke up. He could not recall why he was out of the car or if he was getting out or getting back into it. The three of them were confused, dazed and did not know where they were. They all had terrible headaches. It took them a few minutes to come to their senses. They seemed to be pulled over into a rest stop but there was only empty road and forest around them. They looked at their watches and found that about four hours had lapsed since their last memories, which was riding along the highway to their brothers.

They had to drive for a few miles before they found a sign to get a sense of where they were. They found that they had driven miles out of the way, in the wrong direction, and had no idea at all how they got there or why they were there. They drove for about an hour before they were able to turn on to a main highway they were familiar with.

They were shaken and not feeling well. They turned off the main highway when they came upon a town they knew. They found a small restaurant they had eaten at before and pulled in to its parking lot to try to calm down.

The neighbor got out of his car and walked around it. The two sisters got out of the car as well as they were feeling sick from a strange odor that was drifting through out the car. They rolled down all the windows and opened the doors to air out the car.

The three of them were shocked at the condition of their vehicle. It was covered in mud and dirt. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. The car had been freshly washed for the trip to their brother’s house. They stood in stunned silence looking at their mud-covered car.

They bought coffee and donuts thinking it may help them clear their heads. They called their brother and told him they were not coming. They sat in the car drinking their hot coffee and nibbling on the donuts when the neighbor noticed something on his wife’s face. He thought it was a piece of donut and reached over to brush it away. He found instead an odd round bruise a bit raised on her face. They soon discovered each of them had a small bruise on their faces or necks.

The three of them now frightened and confused decided to take the most populated route back home to their house. When they arrived home they opened the trunk of the car to remove the over night bags they packed. That is when they realized that all the photo albums were gone. A huge box of family photos was missing. They had no memory of stopping much less opening the cars trunk. They had no idea what had happened. They still felt sick and had terrible pains in their heads. They did manage to reason out searching to see if they had left the box in the house. They searched the house; the photos were not there. They were shaken; sick and confused to what happened to them during the hours they lost on their way to their brothers.

The neighbor remembered seeing me in town and sent his wife to call to have me come over to help them understand what they had just encountered.

My brother and I calmed them down and went out to look at their car. It was covered in a heavy mud. It also looked as if it had a few new scratches along the one side. The trunk had two over night bags and nothing else in it. Their photos were nowhere to be found in the car. We did not smell anything odd in the car but did notice a bit of the mud on the dashboard by the drivers seat. We locked the car and returned to the house.

Click on the 'NEXT' arrow for page 3

Share this article with: