When Kat Came Back

Chapter 38

"And we're back," the TV host said. "Welcome back to The AM Show. For those of you just joining us we are excited about this next segment. I'm sure many of our viewers will remember the story that made national news back in early October when Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy made an amazing discovery during a show in Los Angeles. Patrick, why don't you tell us about that discovery?"

Patrick rearranged himself on the sofa-like seat.

"It's still something that I'm incredulous even happened. But we were playing the first of two shows in LA, and I like to look out at the crowd. Usually I can only see the first couple of rows because of the lights in our faces. I saw these two girls in the, I don't know, second or third row, ish? One was having a blast, and her friend just seemed, distracted and didn't look like she was having that good a time."

"But that isn't what really caught your eye or got your attention?" The host said.

"No. It wasn't," Patrick nodded.

"So, what was it about this girl, out of the thousands in the audience, that caught your attention.  Because if memory serves, the reviews mentioned you getting distracted at that first show."

"What caught my attention and literally made me stop in my tracks was that she looked almost exactly the same as my older sister when she was 15. And I just knew I had to at least try to get a chance to talk to her and see if I was just out of my mind or if I was on to something."

"Well, obviously she wasn't your time-travelling older sister.  And your family had suffered a tragedy almost fifteen years prior," the host said.

"We did. In 1991 my baby sister, Kaitlyn, was kidnapped right out of her stroller. She was six months old at the time."

"You blamed yourself for a long time, I understand," the host said.

"I did. Pretty much up until that night," Patrick wiped a tear away. "I mean, I was only seven, but at the same time, I was being a bit of a brat and giving my mom a hard time about trying on clothes. I felt it was my fault Kat got taken because my mom had to come to the last dressing room and the stroller didn't fit. So it was my fault she had to leave Kat and so I let Kat get taken."

"You don't feel that way anymore though, do you?" The host asked.

"I do not. We've all gone through a lot of therapy, I'm not ashamed to say. And we all recognize that it was a series of events that were out of our control."

"So there you were, staring at the spitting image of your older sister, and you just had to know?"

"Yes, exactly. So, when we left the venue to get into the cars to the hotel, I got a couple of backstage passes and two tickets and hoped they'd be among the girls that would line the fence outside the venue every night."

"And were they?" The host asked.

Patrick smiles with his eyes watery. He wipes his eyes with his sleeve.

"They were. Sorry. I wish we'd gotten to her sooner."

"Because Kat was gone,"

Patrick nodded.

"Technically, yes."

"Technically. What do you mean by that?"

"Well, without getting into all the finer points, we did finally find out that the girl at the concert was indeed my missing baby sister. But, of course her name wasn't Kaitlyn anymore."

"So, you managed to find you sister, but she wasn't the baby you all lost anymore. She was a 15 year old now?"

"Well, yeah. Because she got to grow up. And I found her," Patrick smiled. "Against all the odds, and after 15 years, I found my baby sister."