The Grand Escape 1 - Missing Moon

"Well? Are you gonna take it or not?"

My brother nudged me in the arm for the thirtieth time that day, probably the thousandth time he's done that in his life. I'm surprised that I've never lifted my sleeve to find a large bruise underneath. The numbness in my shoulder made it extra hard to hold the camera steady.

"Okay, okay! Just leave me alone!" I knelt down before the Chinese wind bells and adjusted the camera in my grasp to get the perfect angle. I finally settled for a shot that barely cut off the bottom of the decorated paper, with the huge glass bowl in center view, against a perfect backdrop of the pink, purple and gray-streaked sky. *FLASH* "Okay, that should be it." My brother and I  walked on, through the New Year festival. Well, I managed to keep walking. My brother got extremely distracted with all the smells of duck, pork, and his favorite, moon cakes. "Hey, Sun! c'mon! We have moon cakes at home!" I called out to him, before quickly giving up and practically dragging him out of the booth that was selling moon cakes. "C'mon! We're not spending twenty dollars for a moon cake."

Yes, my younger brother's name is Sun. And my name is Moon. I know its not normal, but you can try to tell my parents that. They never stop to consider what is normal. The way I've been taught, a similarity in a common interest is all it takes to bring any two people closer together. For my mom and dad, it was astrology. For me and my friend Mira, it was historical fiction novellas. For me and my brother, it was photography. I found my love flipping through my parents old photo album, marveling at the pieces of paper that held images of my parents, their old high school friends, and me in baby form. My eyes widened in excitement when my younger brother asked for a little toy polaroid camera for Christmas at three years old. From then on, he and I would often tread around the back yard, taking pictures of flowers, trees, and butterflies, if they stayed still for long enough. When we were old enough, my father moved his telescope out of his old office and moved it to the attic, and turned his old office into a darkroom. School was not a different story. Every year, I signed up for the yearbook committee. When I reached my first year of high school, Sun was actually able to join the committee with me. Sun also created an instagram page that we shared together, and we filled it with the most stereotypical instagram pictures you could think of, with shots of sunsets at beaches, our parents' vacation martinis, and our friends holding hands and lying down in fields of flowers. We even talked about creating a Canva page, where we could practice digital design.

So yeah, we bonded over our shared obsession with the idea of photography.

Sun and I entered our darkroom, or as we called it, the Picture Chamber. The dark red glow of the lamps filled the room, centering on a large oak table that held a container of developing fluid. Quickly, we both got to work. Sun and I unloaded our camera roll and laid the individual squares into the clear liquid. It took up to about thirty minutes, but we were able to successfully clear up five different pictures of festival food, two separate angles of a robin, three still-life images of different cherry blossom fields, a picture of me against the moon that Sun had snapped without me noticing, and of course, the picture of the Chinese wind chime. 

We hung our new additions on our clothesline of flapping polaroids and stepped back. That's when Mom called us in.

"Sun, Moon! Come downstairs! We're about to eat."

A feast was laid before us on the table. Duck, crab, and tarot root provided the most distinct smells. I also noticed bowls of puree pumpkin and water chestnuts. Small, bowl-like cups full of osthmanthus tea at each person's seat. There were seven seats in total. Mom, Dad, me and Sun, our mother's sister, Aunt Susan, Dad's childhood friend, Uncle Sam, and Dad's mother, our grandmother, Olivia. Without another word, my brother and I joined our family in prayer and sat down for dinner.

-----Evening------

Dinner was so long this time. Grandma Olivia had so much to say about Mom and Aunt Susan's choice of style, while Dad had retreated with Uncle Sam to the Living Room to talk about the latest game between...what was it? The Bears? The Rangers? The Mermen? I don't know anything about sports. That's more Dad and Uncle Sam's thing. I had finally gotten away after three hours of tuning everyone out. I now lay on my bed, staring at my ceiling in the dark. I would usually do something by now. Maybe take a novella from my shelf and start reading, maybe text Mira about one she was reading, or just lie there, thinking about the subject of the next fifty shots I was gonna take Tomorrow. But I couldn't. My mind was completely blank. Or it was too full. I could never tell. I looked over to my dresser on the other side of the bed. I debated opening the drawer, but decided against it. I needed something to clear my head. I wanted to forget about all the shouting and partying still going on downstairs. I wanted to get away from here, maybe find a nice place to snap a few pictures. That's when Sun walked into the room. "Hey Sis, you feeling alright? You kinda snuck off as soon as Grandma stopped talking about you're new, what'd you call him? You're "Guy Friend?" He said it with such a dumb little smirk that only little brothers could give off. Other times, it wouldn't bother me so much, but I really did not need this right now.

"What do you want?"

"Just to make sure you're okay. Honest. What's with you?"

God, all his priding was really getting under my skin.

"Nothings wrong. Just, go away."

"Okay, geez! Hormones, I get it! I just wanted to know if you wanted to get anymore pictures in before the weekend ends.

"I don't know. I think I just wanna turn in for the night right now."

"Okay, I get it. Just come wake me up in the morning. Okay?"

"Okay."

I said that thinking I was going to keep my promise to my brother. It was about one, maybe two minutes after he left that I realized that promise would not only be broken, but that would be the last words I said to my brother for a long time. After two minutes, I heard a noise from outside my window.

Monday, February 2, 2019

This written document is being recorded with the relation to the disappearance of fourteen-year-old Moon Hale. Hale is a female with pale skin and back-length black hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a light blue long-sleeve sweater and jeans with white converse. At the time of recording, the last one to have interacted with Hale was her eleven-year-old brother, Sun Hale. Hale has also been observed to have stolen a polaroid camera. Reasons for this action have yet to be determined.

On January 31, 2019, Moon Hale had mentioned the Big Sur Cliffs, a landmark far off the coast of  California. Her brother mentioned that they had been planning to visit this landmark and photograph it together. Theories claim she has run away to this sight, though nothing has been confirmed. According to Janice Hale, her mother, her daughter has not taken any of her prescribed medications for anxiety and is not on her daily medication for insomnia.

Sun Hale has a history of lying and cheating. It has been suggested that he may be the culprit behind the disappearance of his sister. Despite these claims, he is a loving and caring individual who lives a comfortable life and is well-liked in his community. His mother is an English professor at Michigan State University and his father is a renowned novelist with a college minor in astronomy.

Sun read over the last paragraph over and over. Suggested that he might be the culprit... rang in his head. A history of lying and cheating? Mom had only said that he had lied about stealing his sister's toys, or blaming Moon for knocking over the telescope in the attic. Nothing no other kid would do. And they seriously thought that was enough to say he was the reason his sister disappeared? He hadn't even noticed anything wrong with her the night she disappeared. He managed to look up from the news article long enough to read the calendar. February 5th. Three days after his sister disappeared. This wasn't going to work. The police were taking too long. He needed to know what happened to her. He would have to find her himself. That night, Sun grabbed a Duffle Bag and stuffed it with three sets of clothes, some apples and crackers, a whole pack of water bottles, and a spare miniature camera. He grabbed his phone and placed it in his left pocket of his jeans, and threw on a black hoodie. It was time to take matters into his own hands.

"Alright Sis, I'm coming to save ya."