Deserving of Luke

Panic set in about five minutes after Paige Matthews realized her son was gone.

At first, she told herself it was no big deal. He was probably two rows over in the toy aisle, checking to see if the selection was up to snuff.

When he wasn't there, poring over the surprisingly extensive collection of miniature cars, she figured he'd simply wandered over to the ice cream case—Luke was a sucker for strawberry ice cream.

And when he wasn't there either, when the small kernel of concern that had formed the moment she realized he was not at the end of the aisle as she'd thought he was, started to grow, she still told herself she was overreacting. This mom-and-pop grocery store in the small Oregon town she'd grown up in was a far cry from the huge supermarkets of Los Angeles, where Luke had been born and raised. Even at eight, he knew how to take care of himself, knew not to talk to strangers and to stay in one place if, for some reason, he did get separated from her—though it had never happened before.

So what could possibly happen to him here?

The reassuring thoughts didn't keep her from walking faster any more than they kept her from remembering her childhood here in Prospect and all the trouble she had managed to get into. While the fact that they weren't in the big city made her feel a little better, the feeling didn't last long—especially when she got to the candy aisle and realized Luke hadn't wandered over there, either. Worse, the store's display of gummy animals and body parts was completely undisturbed, a sure sign that he had not stopped here at all. And that was so unlike him that concern turned to terror.

"Luke!" she called, racing past the deserted candy section to the front of the store. "Luke, where are you?"

There was no answer and in those moments every terrible thing that could happen to an unaccompanied eight-year-old boy flashed through her mind, small town