We don't know how she got away from us. We had only been on the camp site a couple of hours. It was lush, deep, cool and quiet. We could hear the sound of a vibrant stream in the distance, but it couldn't be seen through the growth.

Alisia was just behind us playing, having been cooped up in a car for hours by herself in the back seat and anxious. She had grabbed a stick when we landed and was lost in the myriad worlds of fantasy creatures and drama in her 4-year-old imagination.

Bob (my husband) stopped suddenly and his eyes widened as I peered up toward him from setting the stakes to the tent. We were anxious to get arranged with what was left of the late afternoon sun before dark.

"Do you hear something?"

He was visibly startled and apprehensive.

"No." I replied

"Oh, shit." was all I heard him say as he started darting about the site apprehensively...building toward a panic.

It was still silence. Not what you expected or even wanted in the presence of a four year old girl with a will and vibrance that was all but untraceable, except when she was asleep...which really wasn't often enough for me.

It was a horrifying silence as I sat back and listened to it until its message finally settled in. He'd obviously gotten it long before I did and was into action.

Alisia was gone. She had disappeared into the forest growth without a trace or a sound and we would spend the next four days in shear terror and panic desperately praying for her return and completely baffled and left helpless with the forests power to swallow anything forever without warning or a sound...even our innocent small daughter, leaving us with nothing but panic and tears...without hope, but unable to stop grasping for it.

The only thing harder for us than the loss was the avalanche of unbelievable fantasies she would bring back those several days later when she reappeared just as suddenly and mysteriously as she left. They are unbelievable tales of a people she encountered...impossible to believe, especially from a 4-year old, but bafflingly consistent, intricate, explanative, full of characters and visions that defy explanation.

The real mystery remains (in those brief times when I can still the panic of loss...now but a memory, but still so overwhelmingly powerful) and just concentrate on the details (which will not leave her...she is 18 today and repeats them with uncanny accuracy and consistency). The puzzle that remains even now unsolved, because try as we could, we could never find even a trace of the Aeolani children (and adults) she claims to have met...the puzzle is that she returned to us after 4 days obviously happy, content, unworried, bathed, her hair braided in a pattern even we cannot duplicate, shining, beaming, happy and well fed...without a scratch or a fear anywhere about her...after four days, apparently lost and alone in the wilderness...or was she?