M. Gessen

I immediately texted my brother Keith, who was closer to Alan.

So our cousin has kidnapped his son and abandoned his daughter?

The answer would appear to be maybe, my brother responded.

Just a note, this isn't the big shocking thing I was talking about earlier.

We were still a few years away from that.

I called my dad.

He told me that Alan had just shown up at his house on Cape Cod without warning.

His five-year-old son was with him, as was Lena, my dad's sister.

I asked my dad if we should do something about the maybe kidnapping?

Like, I don't know, contact the FBI?

This was the wrong thing to say to a guy who grew up in the Soviet Union.

He would never call the authorities on his sister and nephew.

What he did do was post a picture of O on Facebook.

Perhaps a message in a bottle for O's mom?

Sure enough, my father immediately heard from her.

Her name is Priscilla.

Priscilla wrote to my dad describing the ordeal she was enduring.

She said she had gone on a short business trip to Zimbabwe and when she returned, she discovered that Alan had left with their son.

It had been about a week and only now, from seeing my father's Facebook post, was she learning anything more.

Priscilla wrote, I beg you please to help me get my son back or to at least speak to him.