missing posters

Baron liked to look at the missing posters that were plastered on the wall in the back of his local Sam’s Club. He remembered when there was just a single row of five pretty little girls. Now the posters stretched nearly to the ceiling and back. They were mostly young girls with fair skin and long hair, lovely faces that really made a person stop and miss them. There were also a few outliers, boys and minorities, the type of people who were allowed to go missing in most places. 

Baron stared at the wall for a few minutes every time he was leaving the store and there were a few reasons why he did this. Firstly, he liked to try and memorize the newcomers so that he could keep an eye out. Not really because he cared if these little girls were found, but because he buzzed at the idea of being on the local news, a regular man turned hero. Secondly, he had a sister that he didn’t speak to any more and that sister had a young daughter. Well, the daughter was probably about twenty now, but that was still plenty young to Baron. He liked to keep an eye out for her, although he wasn’t quite sure what she looked like. He knew her name and that was enough. 

Thirdly, and most plainly, Baron liked looking at the pretty little girls. He liked counting their freckles and noting the length of their hair, if it had curls or if it lay flat. He took pleasure in trying to decide whether their eyes would be green or blue or brown if their pictures had been printed in color. He thought about what they might have been wearing when they were taken or how their looks have deteriorated with age, time, and abuse. Baron felt a little pang of something in his gut when he lingered too long on these things. It was a painful feeling, but addictive. Seeing all that youth trapped in the back of a Sam’s Club forever and ever, it was tragic. But it also made Baron feel giddy, as if somehow, these pretty little girls had gained immortality and by staring, he could have a taste. 

A few of the missing children had been found over the years and, admittedly, this often made Baron a little disappointed. Partially because he hadn’t been the one to find them. Mostly because it meant their poster would be taken down and they would be replaced by a new face. Baron would forget about them forever. The whole town would. They would grow old and ugly and get married and have children. Then they would die. Little girls had to stay missing to be remembered. Little girls had to stay missing to live forever.