[ WP ] At your local grocery store you discover a missing child post . You do n't recognize the name but the picture is of you in middle school , and you 've been missing for over 10 years apparently .

I was n't hoping for some sort of miraculous revelation when I went out to the store. I was never the sort of guy that miraculous revelations happened to. I just lived my normal-Joe, everyman life in suburban America, working as an accountant for ASCEND CORP. 
 
 
 But when you see something like that, it grips you like a vice and makes you reconsider everything you hold dear. 
 
 
 Now, you're probably thinking: Dean, buddy, what did you see? A horrific accident which revealed the blood, guts and brain matter of a poor, innocent stranger? Your 10/10 would bang ex-girlfriend making out with your best friend, the guy you've been mates with since preschool? Or perhaps an obese lady descending her mobility scooter to take a gigantic shit in the middle of aisle 14 ( helpfully labeled'Cleaning Supplies' )? Nope, none of those. Instead, I saw a picture of me in middle school. I recognised the picture. It had been taken when I turned 12, a veritable cringe-fest of'scene' and'random lol xd'. Why would my 12 year old, acne-riddled face be in a grocery store? Were the owners stalkers? Was this a prank? 
 
 
 Then, something else hit me in the way Stormtrooper bullets do n't. It was my face, sure, but the name printed below my picture read `` Ian Somerheider''. And the single, all-caps word printed above the picture read `` MISSING SINCE 23/6/05''. 
 
 
 I was n't missing! I was standing right here! 
 
 
 I took the poster down and walked to the nearest sales attendant. He grunted, not pleased that I had interrupted his thirty-seventh attempt at level 14 of Candy Crush. 
 
 `` Hey, man. Who is this kid?'' I asked. The man grunted. 
 
 `` Ca n't you read, chump? Ian Somerheider. 12 year old kid from the other side of the country. Kidnapped 10 years ago. Never seen again. The cops reckon they've seen someone that looks like him round here. Bollocks is what I think. Poor bastard's probably lying in a pond somewhere, waiting for some unlucky fisherman to pluck him out,'' 
 
 `` But-but- that's a picture of me!'' I stuttered, incredulous. 
 
 `` Ca n't be. Told ya, the kiddo's dead. Although you do bear some kinda passing resemblance,'' 
 
 
 Still, I felt uneasy. I distinctly remembered my early childhood spent in a place that was n't here. Possibly all the way across the country. But I had n't been kidnapped! 
 
 That night, I was thinking about the poster. Someone had probably just found the wrong picture, that was all. It was true that I'd lived all the way in LA when I was a kid, but I remembered moving after middle school, not during. I thought more. My parents had divorced when I was 9, and my family life had been dysfunctional ever since. Dad skipped home the second the papers were signed, and my once bubbly, active mom turned into an alcoholic, hungover until the afternoon, then going out to the pub again after I came home from school. She'd died of alcohol poisoning when I was 12. *12? * No, it could n't be, I told myself. Coincidence does not equal correlation. 
 
 
 Then what next? 
 
 
 I fell asleep before I could delve deeper into my memories. 
 
 
 
 *more to follow*
