I don’t know how many of you have heard this (or how many of you care), but they found {{link http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1080601810964&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795 Cecilia Zhang’s}} body over the weekend. When I saw it on the news, I was shocked, and more sad about an abducted child than I can remember. I didn’t know her, and certainly had no personal connection with the girl–so I can’t really explain my reaction to her story.
Part of it may have been her Chinese heritage. Maybe it’s the fact that this happened in Canada. The fact that my parents and relatives felt the need to dissect this back in October or November may have played a part. It could be that little sliver of hope at the back of my mind while I was watching the Santa Claus parade in Toronto (the police had suggested that that would have been a good opportunity for the abductor to return her.)
But maybe what was really scary about her story is that I could have been Cecilia Zhang. No, not just me: any one of the girls I grew up with. Any one of us could have been taken away from our parents, with no apparent motive whatsoever.
I’m a sucker for happy endings. For endings that defy the odds. For endings that happen even though hope is infinitesimal. For the ending everyone wants. This time I threw in my lot with the Toronto police and stayed optimistic about her return. When her body was found… it was definitely a paradigm shift. You are not invincible. And sometimes, despite the best efforts of everyone, failure is the only course available and no one can help you.
Bobby Says: