The Lost Story: A Novel

The storyteller greets the reader, telling them that the story being told is not only a fairy tale but also true. For a story to be a fairy tale, it must have the following ingredients: a princess in distress, a magician, an unlikely hero, evil villains, royalty disguised as nobody, and unusual animals. The storyteller has a role to play too, but for now, the storyteller will leave their identity for the reader to guess. Additionally, the number three is important in fairy tales, and the fairy tale has a “once-upon-a-time” beginning and a happy ending.

Ralph woke up after his return with no memory of where he had been during the previous six months. The story that Jeremy told was that they had missed their school bus, gotten lost in the woods, and survived by foraging. Given how healthy the boys looked, the doctors never quite believed Jeremy, but in the absence of any other evidence, Jeremy and Ralph were released to their families. 

Fifteen years later, Jeremy and Ralph are estranged. Jeremy’s mother, Dr. Mary Cox, a music professor and concert pianist, is dead. Jeremy is a search-and-rescue expert famous for finding missing children and women.

Emilie Wendell develops a special interest in Jeremy because her own older half-sister, whom she has never met, has been lost for years. Emilie visits Jeremy at Bernheim Forest outside Louisville, Kentucky, where he is taping a segment for a documentary. Jeremy agrees to speak to Emilie as they walk around a famous installation of wooden giants. Emilie was adopted into a happy home by her mother, Theresa. After Theresa died of breast cancer a few months ago, Emilie did a DNA test, yearning for family connections. Emilie discovered that she has a half-sister, Shannon Yates, who was kidnapped by a known sexual offender when she was 13. The kidnapper was found dead in the Red Crow Forest a few days later. 

Though Shannon’s body was never recovered, she is presumed dead, too, as her blood was found in the trunk of the kidnapper’s car. Emilie knows that Shannon is probably gone but wants to find her sister’s body so that she can give her a proper burial. Jeremy gently tells Emilie that there may not be much to find after 20 years. As he begins to turn away, Emilie hands him a picture of Shannon, hoping that it will change his mind, and leaves.

Emilie returns to her home in Ohio after the unsuccessful meeting with Jeremy. She reflects on her need to find Shannon. Part of the reason for this need is her longing for family, while the other part is that Shannon and her story seem like an unresolved fairy tale: two sisters separated and raised under vastly different circumstances. Their birth mother was 14 when she had Shannon. Dealing with substance use disorder, she mostly left Shannon to her own devices. Emilie was born 10 years later and adopted by affluent, loving Theresa. Then, Shannon got kidnapped by a sex offender. Emilie wonders why she is the “princess” and Shannon the “pauper” in this tale.

To soothe her anxious thoughts, Emilie listens to her favorite singer, Stevie Nicks, and goes to a nearby cultural center, where there is a labyrinth drawn on the floor. Emilie’s birth mother took drugs when she was pregnant with her, because of which Emilie was a very fussy baby. Music was the one thing that helped calm her. She walks along the labyrinth until she looks up and sees Jeremy. He tells Emilie that he has decided to help her, referring to her as “Princess” (36). The reason why Jeremy has sought out Emilie is because he recognizes Shannon from her photo. She is not dead; in fact, Jeremy met her in the forest when he was lost there. Shannon still lives in the woods. Emilie is stunned at the reveal.

The reader might wonder why Jeremy won’t tell Emilie the whole story at once. Jeremy waits to disclose the details slowly to Emilie because his story is so fantastical that Emilie would not have believed him outright.

Jeremy and Emilie go to Emilie’s house to discuss plans. When they reach the house, Emilie feels wary about letting Jeremy in since he is a stranger. Jeremy tells her something that will prove that he is not a conman. Emilie has mentioned that her mother wore a medal of St. Agatha, the patron saint of breast cancer patients. Emilie could not find the medal after Theresa’s death. Jeremy asks Emilie to look for the medal under Theresa’s bed while he waits outside. Emilie crawls under the bed and finds the medal caught in between the slats. She realizes that Jeremy is credible and invites him inside for coffee.

Emilie introduces Jeremy to her pet rat, Fritz. She also shows Jeremy all the material she has on Shannon, sent over by the police. The package includes Shannon’s own writings as well as many popular children’s fantasy titles, including the Chronicles of Narnia series, missing The Silver Chair. One of Shannon’s poems is about a nobody who became a queen, ruling her fairy kingdom. When Emilie shows the poem to Jeremy, he nearly cries in relief, thanking Emilie for finding him. Emilie can make no sense of Jeremy’s words. Jeremy tells Emilie that they need to go find Shannon, but for this, he must fetch Ralph, whom he calls Rafe.

The storyteller tells the reader that it is time to meet the hero of the story. This is Rafe. Rafe is a hero because he is searching for himself. Behind every hero’s dangerous quest for the Hoy Grail is the hero’s desire to know and find their own self.

Rafe lives in near seclusion in his dead father Bill’s cabin at the foot of Starcross Hill. The authorities have given Rafe the run of the land in exchange for watching out for poachers. On his way back from the woods, Rafe rescues a robin from a hawk. The bird’s wing is broken. Rafe bandages the robin’s wing in a hankie and places the bird in a shoebox so that he can take it to the nearest vet. He soothes the bird by saying that it will heal and soon fly.

Just then, Jeremy pulls up in front of the cabin. This is the first time that Rafe has seen Jeremy in 15 years. A surprised Rafe says that he cannot talk because he has to rush to save a wounded bird, pointing at the shoebox. Jeremy asks Rafe to hand him the box. Much to Rafe’s surprise, the bird flies away when Jeremy opens the box. Rafe wonders if he dreamed that its wing was broken. Meanwhile, Jeremy tells Rafe that they urgently need to discuss something. Rafe reluctantly gives him 15 minutes.

Rafe does not know how to react to Jeremy’s sudden appearance. Before they got lost in the woods, the two used to be inseparable, but since their return, Jeremy has abandoned him, communicating with Rafe mostly through postcards sent from his rescue sites. What is worse is that Jeremy never answered Rafe’s questions about his lost time in Red Crow. The last thing that Rafe remembers from before he woke up in the hospital is that he had locked himself up in his room after his father, Bill, tore up his sketchbook. Bill considered drawing an unmanly pursuit. In the present, Jeremy compliments the murals and sculptures that Rafe has created in the cabin.

Rafe snaps and asks Jeremy to come to the point. Jeremy says that he wants Rafe’s help in locating a missing girl. Rafe agrees to help, but only on the condition that Jeremy tells him about what happened to them in Red Crow. Jeremy’s answer is that the truth is too dangerous for Rafe to discover in the present, but by the time they find the missing girl, Rafe will know everything. Rafe is angry at Jeremy’s secretiveness, which he believes has kept him from getting better. Rafe has been caught running or driving toward Red Crow in his sleep three times and subsequently hospitalized in the psychiatric ward. The habit stopped after Bill died. Rafe dismisses Jeremy.

In case the reader judges Rafe for being too stubborn, the storyteller asks the reader if they would have behaved differently in Rafe’s shoes. The storyteller doesn’t think so.

Jeremy calls up Emilie, asking her to come to Rafe’s place. Although Rafe has not yet agreed to the mission, he’ll change his mind about meeting Emilie. Emilie goes to the cabin, entering through Rafe’s sculpture garden in the back. She is astonished at the elaborate, painted carvings of woodland creatures, unicorns, birds, and, most of all, a girl who is clearly Shannon. 

Rafe runs into Emilie standing next to the sculpture. Emilie introduces herself and points out the similarities between Shannon’s photo and the statue. Realizing that something eerie is unfolding, Rafe invites Jeremy and Emilie in. To let off steam, he punches Jeremy.

A queen in a faraway kingdom discovers a theft from her library: a precious book stolen from a treasure box, in which it had been locked safely for 15 years. A red crow, one of the queen’s spies, brings news about the identity of the thief. The queen wishes that the thief were someone else, but then no other person would have the motive to steal the book. The crow also tells her that the lost ones are coming home, but before all of them can celebrate, there will be a fight.

Emilie is upset with Rafe for punching Jeremy, even though Jeremy, lying on the couch, seems unfazed. Privately, Rafe asks Jeremy how he can help find Shannon when he has no idea about her or their time together. Jeremy asks Rafe to trust him and go along with his plan. Rafe wonders if the reason for Jeremy’s secretiveness is that Rafe behaved like a coward in the woods. Jeremy vehemently denies the suggestion, calling Rafe braver than any prince. Rafe is struck by Jeremy’s old-fashioned vocabulary in describing his bravery and finds the prince comparison odd in light of Rafe’s modest background. Bill was a no-nonsense electrician who showed up for school meetings in sweaty clothes, while Rafe’s mother, Bobbi—still alive—was a seemingly ordinary housewife.

When Emilie returns, the talk turns to fathers. Theresa was a single parent, as was Mary since Jeremy’s father died by suicide before Jeremy was born. Rafe’s relationship with Bill was fraught, though Rafe has made his peace with his father. He knows that Bill was devastated when he was lost and searched every inch of Red Crow for him. Jeremy has a different version of events: He reminds Rafe that abusive Bill was the reason they ended up lost in the first place. Rafe tells Jeremy that he does not want to blame his father for anything. Bill had sought Rafe’s forgiveness days before he died. Although Rafe did not have time to tell Bill that he forgave him, he wants to honor his father’s memory by staying away from Red Crow, a promise that Bill extracted from Rafe. However, if Emilie and Jeremy insist, Rafe will accompany them to the forest, conditional upon Bobbi’s blessing.

Rafe tells Emilie and Jeremy that he needs to get a shave and a haircut before he sees Bobbi. Emilie brings out the shears and scissors that she uses to trim her bangs. When Rafe takes off his T-shirt before shampooing his hair, Emilie nearly screams at the sight of the pale pink, long, thin scars on Rafe’s back. Rafe has no memory of how he got the scars. After clipping Rafe’s hair, Emilie goes upstairs to his room, where Jeremy is packing Rafe’s stuff, including a bow.

Emilie tells Jeremy the story of how she got Fritz. She worked as a vet’s technician, where Fritz was brought in by his owner to be euthanized. Emilie couldn’t bear to kill Fritz, took him home, and was fired from her job. Jeremy calls Emilie “Princess” again and tells her that he is proud of her (123). Emilie is annoyed at the nickname, which implies that she is spoiled and weak. Jeremy assures her that he calls her princess out of respect. 

Meanwhile, a clean-shaven Rafe walks in, leaving Emilie stunned by his beautiful looks. Noticing the way that Jeremy and Rafe look at each other, Emilie asks Rafe in private how he and Jeremy met. When Rafe nonchalantly says that they met at school, Emilie calls him a terrible storyteller.

The storyteller agrees with Emilie that Rafe’s story about meeting Jeremy is unsatisfying. The real story is that Ralph met Jeremy in class on the first day of high school. Jeremy, already well-known in school because he was handsome, wealthy, and British, complimented the sketch of a coyote that Ralph was drawing at his desk. Pretending to be tough, Rafe told Jeremy that this was nothing; he also hunted coyotes with his father, always with a bow and an arrow. Jeremy decided that Ralph was too common a name for an artist and decided to call him “Rafe,” closer to the British pronunciation. Rafe found Jeremy unbearably cool and instantly wanted to live in the fearless world that Jeremy seemed to inhabit.