TM Response #194 - Vanishings
"The true magic of this broken world lay in the ability of the things it contained to vanish, to become so thoroughly lost, that they might never have existed in the first place." - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
At first, the disappearance of Franz Hopper and his daughter caused a bit of a stir in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine. Hopper was a noted scientist and teacher in the community and Aelita a bright and well-liked young girl. There was no reason for the two of them to just up and leave.
As the investigation went on, the case only got more mysterious the more information was uncovered. When police had first begun investigating and searched the Hermitage, they found everything exactly as the Hoppers had left it. Nothing was disturbed; there was no evidence that either Hopper or his daughter had taken anything with them but the clothes on their backs when they left. Days later a colleague of Franz's dropped by the Hermitage to check up on the house, only to find the place ransacked. Someone had gone through that house searching for something.
And then there were the men in black, snooping around the Hermitage and the school where Hopper had taught. The students grew used to having substitutes as their teachers were pulled from class for questioning. Some of the students themselves, those who had been closest to Aelita, were also interrogated. But no one could tell the police a thing.
But as time wore on, with no headway made on the case, the mystery of the Hopper Vanishings lost its allure. The people of Sceaux found other gossip to occupy their time and their interest. A new teacher, Susanne Hertz, was hired to replace Franz as Kadic's science teacher and as she settled in Franz gradually faded from their memories. Aelita's friends and peers grew up, graduated from school and started families of their own. Pretty soon the name "Aelita Hopper" was only brought up at the occasional alumni reunion, when an old classmate would wonder whatever happened to her.
By the time Odd Della Robbia's pink-haired cousin Aelita Stones transferred to Kadic in the middle of the school year over ten years later, no one thought to connect her to one-time Kadic student Aelita Hopper.
At first, the disappearance of Franz Hopper and his daughter caused a bit of a stir in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine. Hopper was a noted scientist and teacher in the community and Aelita a bright and well-liked young girl. There was no reason for the two of them to just up and leave.
As the investigation went on, the case only got more mysterious the more information was uncovered. When police had first begun investigating and searched the Hermitage, they found everything exactly as the Hoppers had left it. Nothing was disturbed; there was no evidence that either Hopper or his daughter had taken anything with them but the clothes on their backs when they left. Days later a colleague of Franz's dropped by the Hermitage to check up on the house, only to find the place ransacked. Someone had gone through that house searching for something.
And then there were the men in black, snooping around the Hermitage and the school where Hopper had taught. The students grew used to having substitutes as their teachers were pulled from class for questioning. Some of the students themselves, those who had been closest to Aelita, were also interrogated. But no one could tell the police a thing.
But as time wore on, with no headway made on the case, the mystery of the Hopper Vanishings lost its allure. The people of Sceaux found other gossip to occupy their time and their interest. A new teacher, Susanne Hertz, was hired to replace Franz as Kadic's science teacher and as she settled in Franz gradually faded from their memories. Aelita's friends and peers grew up, graduated from school and started families of their own. Pretty soon the name "Aelita Hopper" was only brought up at the occasional alumni reunion, when an old classmate would wonder whatever happened to her.
By the time Odd Della Robbia's pink-haired cousin Aelita Stones transferred to Kadic in the middle of the school year over ten years later, no one thought to connect her to one-time Kadic student Aelita Hopper.