Wrong Child
By Nane P
Spring 2020 – 4th Grade

When I flipped on the radio that night, I couldn?t believe the voice I heard coming through. My sister had gone missing for years now. We don’t really know what happened to her. It has been several years since I heard from her.

My sister, Leah, and father were visiting a town. Leah was about 6 years old at the time and she had seen some candy and she wanted some so she ran off. We think a stranger had kidnapped her but we are still not sure. My father stayed in the town for over 6 months searching for her but he finally gave up. He put up signs all over. The reward was 50,000 baht The police and local authorities gave up months earlier. She vanished without a trace.

I was just doing homework while listening to the radio then I heard a familiar voice. I didn?t know who it was at first. But then mom and dad came running up shouting. They heard the same thing that I did. I realized it was Leah! Leah was back! I could not believe my ears. It was actually Leah!

My parents were on the phone talking to the police. Mom and Dad came into my room crying. Mom said we were going to fly somewhere to pick her up tomorrow! I was so excited I also started to cry.

They did not tell me how Leah was located. I had so many thoughts. Where was Leah? Was she okay? Was she kidnapped after all? Was she injured? I could not sleep that night.

The next morning, we got on a plane. The flight there was not very long but it felt like forever to me. I was so excited to meet Leah again. I wonder if she will remember me. We took a car to a small town called Naburi. I have never been there before. When we entered the town, it was a small dark place… not many people lived there. There were only a few small buildings and dirt covered roads.

When we got to the police station, there were two policemen standing up front. We went down and the police took us to a room where we were supposed to meet Leah. There was a person inside the room but Leah was not there. The person told us that we will go to see Leah but that we should not be shocked.

We went into another small room where we saw a little girl sitting there. Was that Leah? She looked different from what I remembered. I wondered if I remembered her differently. The person who was in the room earlier told us that this girl was Leah.

The woman told us that they found Leah in the forest. She must have gotten lost and was discovered walking in the streets by herself. Leah could no longer speak and just pointed and grunted.

Later on, I found out that the woman in the room was the person who found Leah so dad gave her the money. We took Leah to a hospital where they trained her to speak again then she moved back home with us.

We gave Leah a brand new room. She was acting strange. The old Leah was fun and playful but now she wasn?t talking to anyone and she would become aggressive to us if we told her to go outside or to join at the dinner table. I had a feeling that it wasn?t Leah. I told Mom and Dad but they just ignored me and said that I should be grateful that we found her again. Leah had changed a lot.

I was walking with my friend back from school and chose to go the shortcut way which went through a dark alleyway. I thought I had seen someone that looked like Leah playing through the window of a house. I didn’t think much of it. I thought I was just seeing things. But things started to get weirder and weirder.

At home, Leah started to throw and break things. She was aggressive and she locked herself up in the room for days. She just yelled at us to leave her alone. Mom and Dad thought she had just been through a lot the past four years. When Leah started to go to school, she was called to the principal’s office many times that she was finally expelled.

Mom tried homeschooling her and that didn’t work out. Leah would not listen to Mom. So they just let her stay in her room. Leah would play video games for hours. Before Leah was lost, she was a kind and playful girl who would never break any rules. She would always do her homework. She was also never interested in video games.

One day I didn’t have school, Mom and Dad didn’t know that there was no school so I decided I would go to the house where I thought I had seen Leah. I put on a hoodie and took a flashlight then I went to the house in the alleyway. I sneaked in through the back door. The house was a one story house. I looked around, I saw many little girls rooms and I saw what looked like an adults room. There was nobody home.

I looked at the back of the house and I could believe my eyes. It was Leah!! It was actually Leah!! She had changed a lot but I still remembered her. She was picking flowers. I yelled out to her. She looked at me and ran to hug me. I asked her what happened and she just told me to bring her home and that she would tell me everything when we got home.

I brought her home. We waited for mom and dad to come home. The other girl who we thought was Leah was still in her room with the door locked. When mom and Dad arrived, I told them everything. I told them how I thought the girl wasn’t actually Leah and how I saw the real Leah at this house. My parents immediately went to the police station.

The policemen told us that the man who had kidnapped Leah worked with the woman who told us that she found Leah in the forest. And that the man had kidnapped many other children for the reward money and to sell children work labor. The man had mixed up Leah with another girl and brought the wrong girl to us. We got our money back and the man and the woman both went to jail.

Leah (the real Leah) was back living with us and all the other kids got sent back to their families too.