When Helena and Cheryl Jorgensen are taken away from home by Marl and Dodd Shows, Helena wonders if she'll ever see her cloud and it's silver lining and their ticket to safety. But things change, as she grows older with the Shows instead of with her actual family. Suddenly while she is living a grand happy jolly life Marl and Dodd reveal the realty of themselves to the two children. They ask the two girls to steal something from a famous person's manor. But will they do it? Will they do it and be criminals or will they call for help and be back at their proper home?

Prologue

1

It started at a yard sale. I know it's a bit odd but hey I'm telling you the truth. It started at a stupid old yard sale where my seven children and I were trying to get rid of things so that we could have a cleaner house. Never in my wonderful life that I have had had I ever expected to lose my two almost youngest kids. I had one baby in my arm and a toddler clinging to me at every moment so it was hard to lose them. Annie was still three months old and Joe was still about two or so. The two that got lost or stolen or however you want to put it were five-year-old Cheryl and ten-year-old Helena. How Helena had even been kidnapped or lost or whatever I don't know. All I know is that to this very damn day I haven't had a yard sale since. If I did I made absolute positive sureness that the other five kids were always away at a friend's house or at the granny's house. They all loved my mother so it kept them away. It's been about ten years since that yard sale and I still haven't caught a glimpse of the now fifteen year old Cheryl and the now twenty-year-old Helena. I mean shouldn't I have seen something by now? Well I don't know. I can't believe I lost them though. My order of kids went like this. First it was Darren-15 at the time, then it was Yolanda-13, then it was Kelsey-12 and stubborn, then it was Helena-as you already know 10 and kidnapped, and then it was Cheryl-age 5, then the toddler Joe-age 2, and then the three month year old baby Annie.

Okay let's start from the beginning.

I woke up that morning to the sound of Annie's wailing. My husband Doug was trying to sleep and when he heard the wailing baby he was cursing like mad.

"This is one thing I never liked about you Mandy," he muttered drowsily.

"What?" I said defensively.

"You forced me to give us too many kids."

"So," I said putting my hands on my hips for emphasis. "You agreed. You could have went against it after child number five four or three or two or—"

"Alright, alright!" he bellowed making the baby cry even louder.

"Now look what you've done," I hissed getting out of the bed to get my clothes on and hush the baby before it woke the whole family up.

"Hush now Annie sweetie!" I called hoping that I was calling her down at least a little bit. No such luck. When Annie hears voices she cries louder. I remember later hearing Doug saying how he wished that Annie had been the one kidnapped but then Darren had pointed out that nobody would ever want to kidnap a crying baby because they would undoubtedly go insane and he would to.

I then arrived in Annie's playroom that she shared with Joe since there weren't enough bedrooms in the house. There were only five and this meant that Kelsey and Helena shared a room and despised it. This also meant that Cheryl shared a room with Yolanda who hated it mainly because Cheryl was a pain and she had to get kicked out her room around 8:00 at night and to her that was an unspeakable hour to have to go to sleep. I agreed with her but what else could we do in the circumstances. We couldn't move. No we definitely weren't moving.

I crossed the playroom to Annie's crib and picked her up and shushed her. This unfortunately caused Joe to start screaming. It had been worse. There had been the times when Kelsey and Yolanda and Helena and Darren were still younger and that had driven me more mad then these to. I think Doug knows that too because he doesn't complain about Annie that much. He knows as well as I do that it had been way worse before when the others were kids. Well we weren't going to have much trouble soon because we were going to be a family of seven soon and not nine like we've always been.

Just like the nine in the lord of the rings. They got separated to. Would our family go split that much? Well in the end of those they all came back together. But one never came back. Who would that one be Helena or Cheryl? Or maybe it wouldn't go along the lines of Lord of the Rings and we would have our own version of the Nine. The nine of us were going to live happily ever after in the end of all this was what I was confident in thinking. It was hard to think that really under the circumstances. I rocked Annie and scooped up toddler Joe as Darren and Yolanda came in infuriated by their siblings.

"We were probably quieter then them," Darren snapped. "Weren't we Yolanda?" Yolanda nodded agreeing with her brother.

"You two and Kelsey and Helena were twice as loud," I said firmly. "If one of you two helps me out with these kids you might get your breakfast."

"Did you have to have this many kids?" Darren groaned questioningly at me as he took Joe the toddler and led him downstairs. "Now I'm going to have to cut my hair again because he won't stop pulling it," he roared up at me.

"Live!" I shouted back.

"I'll take Annie," Yolanda offered.

"No it's okay honey go make some French toast before the whole family's after me." Yolanda nodded and went to the kitchen. I walked down the stairs carrying an amazingly silent Annie in my left arm and holding onto the railing for balance with my right.

Doug met me at the bottom on his way to the kitchen.

"At least she's quiet," he murmured to me in an undertone. "The entire family's up now thanks to you Miss Annie." Annie giggled clearly unaware of her father's fury. Doug stared at me. I shrugged and moved on to the kitchen.

"Yard Sale today," I announced at large to the seven children. There were several moans. "Hey if you sell something you get the money," I added. There were a few yahoos mainly from the older kids who were saving up money to buy CDs and videogames and DVDs.

We ate Yolanda's French toast and then we all got ready for the yard sale moving boxes and crates with their contents filled to the top with things we wanted to give away.

For a while nobody came but eventually I was in a frenzy going from one person to another. It was really interesting to watch but it wasn't so bad I'd say. The only bad thing that I can really quote to the world is losing my children-thank God only two of them but still that's pretty bad.

"Hello," I said to a mother and her little girl who looked just around Cheryl's age. "I'm Amanda

Jorgensen."

"My name is Amelia Waxen." The little girl grinned up at me showing her few teeth that she had so far.

"I'm Chelsea!" she said grinning still.

"My daughter's name is Kelsey," I said smiling at the little girl. She squealed her delight.

"Can I meet her?" she begged her mother. "Please."

"Kelsey's a little older then you," I pointed out firmly but kindly at the same time. I had such a good experience with children and my seven kids proved it. What a lucky number huh? I was surprised from time to time that I didn't have twins or triplets. I suppose that's a relief don't you think so? "She's 12."

"Oh," said Chelsea her head drooping to its lowest extent.

"But I have a five-year-old daughter," I offered quickly. "How old are you?"

"Seven," said Chelsea.

"Well I got a 5 years old kids and a 10 years old take your pick." Her eyes were shining.

"I don't think we have time Mrs. Jorgensen," said Mrs. Waxen. "Maybe Chelsea can come and meet your children another time." I nodded still smiling and showed them around. I didn't realize at the time that Chelsea would never get her wish to meet Helena or Cheryl but she did meet Kelsey and grew attached to my daughter who eventually told her to go bug someone else. This in the end doesn't go smoothly but that's in the future and we're talking the past right now.

As I was walking around I notice anything odd. By this time Cheryl and Helena were already gone and Helena was screaming her head off for help and nobody heard her. Cheryl was screaming and wailing and I didn't even know. I just kept doing my duty, which at the time was getting rid of everything in my house that was worthless.

Finally around seven o'clock that evening I packed up the boxes with the help of the other kids and we walked inside.

For dinner to celebrate our success I made Mexican food, which was everybody's favorite. As I put the tacos and tortillas down on the dining room table I noticed that Cheryl and Helena were not among us.

I called for everyone to dinner thinking that they were just upstairs in their rooms. Since our house was so large I had to use the microphone on the telephones surrounding the house to get everyone downstairs.

"Everyone down for dinner it's Mexican!" I heard a lot of replying cheers and there were several pairs of feet storming down the stairs like elephants on a stampede.

Six people sat down at the dinner table as I got plates and silverware ready. There were two missing. Darren was busy talking to Yolanda about who knows what and he was taking care of getting Joe into his highchair at the same time. Kelsey was being nice and generous for once and helping Annie into her own highchair that was a little way away from Joe's due to the facts that Joe enjoyed throwing food at Annie who would eventually wail her eyes out. From where they both sat there was no chance of any food hitting anybody.

Doug was impatient and already began gobbling down food. I called into the microphone on the telephone for Cheryl and Helena to come down but they never came. I finally went upstairs and looked in their rooms. Helena wasn't anywhere in sight and neither was Cheryl. I called all of their friends that I knew. I was terrified. Everyone in the house seemed to notice because they were all dead silent. Even Annie Jorgensen was silent and that was quite a shock and a world record at that.

Finally I gave up putting the phone back on the hook and sulking into a chair not even tasting any of the food.

"Nobody's seen them," I told the table.

"Oh dang," said Darren freezing in his chair with his half eaten taco in both hands.

"They'll come back," said Yolanda hopefully.

"How soon do you think?" Kelsey demanded to know. Everyone at the table was worried. Even Joe the Toddler was worried. I could see it in his eyes. Annie didn't quite understand the life of humanity yet and just stayed silent and expressionless waiting for an opportune moment to start whining again.

We ate the rest of the meal in utter silence everyone hoping against hope that we would hear from Cheryl or Helena any minute if we just had a little hope. But that hopeful moment never came for us. I just can't believe it sometimes. It's strange you know. Thinking back on it 10 years later and having nothing happen it gets a little odd and frightful. I don't like it and I know the other remaining six in the family don't either. And when Annie finds out about it along with Joe when they're old enough they are completely stunned and fearful. It's hard to look back on those things and now I'm just trying to get away. But that never works when you try.