Lost and found
My story begins on the same day the Boysenberries began to wither away. I’m not sure how old I was exactly but I’m quite certain I was around the age of five. My story also begins in America’s first theme park, “Knott’s Berry Farm”.
Now that I think back I must have looked so odd. I was a dark little boy dressed in nothing more than sandals, a loin cloth and an odd leather glove on my right hand. These were the oddest of clothes to be worn in the 1990‘s, I must have looked like I was from a totally different era.
The memory of this day is vague and I don’t remember much about it, but what I do know is that I was heartbroken and I didn’t know why.
Scared and alone I cried out for someone, anyone at all really. I remember seeing other children with their families having a wonderful time in this theme park, but not me... I didn’t even know what a theme park was at the time.
I remember wandering around trying to figure out where I was, this couldn’t have been very long but it felt like an eternity to me at the time... Suddenly someone noticed me. A young girl. She found me, pan and broom in hand and knelt down on one knee talking to me at my height.
“It’s okay sweetie.” She said. “You don’t need to cry.”
Back then she looked so much older but she couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen years old.
“What’s your name sweetie?” She asked.
“Miko.” I answered
“Michael?” She replied, she pronounced my name wrong, but she was so sweet that I didn’t mind, instead I nodded.
“Well my name is Clara.” She replied. “It’s nice to meet you!”
“It’s nice to meet you too.” I replied.
Clara asked me what my parents looked like, but I couldn’t remember. She asked me if I had brothers or sisters and if I could remember what they were wearing, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t remember anything, I knew there was something there, but it was like whatever memories I used to have were wiped away or suppressed somehow.
She held my hand as we walked through the theme park looking for my group, her pointing at different families asking if I recognized any of them, but I didn’t. Occasionally she would let go of my hand so that she could sweep for a moment, but before I got anxious she’d be holding my hand again. She was extremely kind and tried to cheer me up as much as she could, I guess she didn’t want me to cry anymore so she started to compliment me on what a great costume I was wearing. She said it looked so real.
Eventually Clara led me to lost and found at the entrance of the park, she gave me a hug and a sticker assuring me that soon my family would come to find me there. I watched her through a window as she left, her sweeping and greeting guests along the way until I could no longer see her as she disappeared into the crowded park.
Hours went by at lost and found while I waited. The workers there kept me occupied. They even let me ride a few of the rides, but soon the day had passed, and still no-one had come to find me. It was like I didn’t even exist.
Eventually city authorities came and I was taken to an orphanage and became the “states problem”, well that’s what the people at the orphanage used to say.
I hated it there, it was by far the worst years of my life. The other kids liked to pick on me. They’d steal my things and make fun of me. So I learned to make fun of myself before they got the chance, eventually I learned to be sarcastic enough to fight back, even grew a sense of humor which made them leave me alone most of the time.
I didn’t like it there, most of the adults had cold demeanors and most of the other children wanted nothing to do with me.... Except for her.
Her name was Michelle and she was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on. She was kind to me. She taught me that my life had meaning. That I was a good person, and she believed in me. She would always tell me that someday I’d be something amazing. I don’t know my actual age but I believe she was around the same age as I, Thirteen. I fell in love with Michelle Immediately.
Not ever had I met anyone as kind as her. For her I would do anything. I’d even re-live all those lonely years in that orphanage again just to meet her once more.
Once Michelle and I were old enough we left that Orphanage and I married her, vowing to take care of her the rest of our days. I wanted to be as sweet and kind to her as she had been to me, she had saved me and given me a reason to live. I knew that no matter what, I would never let anything happen to her.
Together life became wonderful. Every day was a fresh new adventure and we would do our best to enjoy every part of it....
Yet …still, in the depths of my mind, I wanted to know what happened that day at “Knott’s Berry Farm”. Who were my parents? Where were they? Did I even have parents? Or did I just appear out of nowhere? I had to find out, I needed to remember.
My wife and I decided that the best way to remember would be at that theme park. We applied for jobs at Knott’s berry farm and were hired that same day!
Michelle got a job in the western museum, and I a job as a ride operator.
I excelled at the job. For some reason me and rides just clicked. I knew how they worked and all their different functions almost immediately. I practically learned every ride there was to know. Almost as if it were meant to be.
Michelle loved working in the Western museum because there were so many pieces of history there. Walter Knott found and preserved each and every one of them, he had created the museum himself. She liked the fact that she would be the one to teach people the stories of each and every western treasure. Truly this was what she always wanted to do. It also reminded her of her favorite moment from when were orphans… At one time the orphanage had funded a field trip to a museum. I remember that day vividly, Michelle loved everything about that day. We saw animals from around the world and dinosaur bones, ancient relics and other various historical treasures. We listened as one of the workers gave us a tour. I remember Michelle pointing at our tour guide and whispering to me saying.
“That’s what I want to do someday Michael, I want to tell people about the past.”
I knew that someday she would, and as fate would have it, she ended up working in a museum... on a smaller scale of course, but still she was working in a museum in this theme park, and giving tours to any guest that would ask.
Together we both enjoyed our jobs at Knott’s Berry Farm and day after day I tried to remember what happened years ago, back when I was that lost little boy in the park. I like to write so I would keep a note pad and write down anything that felt familiar, but there wasn’t much to write about, nothing seemed familiar. Even after a year of trying no memory came to me. It was like I didn’t exist before that day.
I had almost given up until one day I saw the big locomotive resting in its station in ghost town. It was the one ride in the park that I had yet to operate and something inside told me that I needed to operate that too. So I transferred to the railroad, and became a locomotive engineer, operating the train through the theme park. I loved working on the train. I even made a few friends out of my coworkers along the way and every day since I knew something was coming... Something big. A memory maybe. Eventually I fell in love with the job so much that I gave up trying. It would take another ten years before it began to happen. One night I began to dream ...