The Leaving

Scarlett and four other teens are dropped off by a white van somewhere with palm trees. None of them remember any events before this moment. It takes several minutes for Scarlett to remember her name and theirs: Lucas, Adam, Kristen, and Sarah. Scarlett sees a nearby playground and thinks she has been there before. She also has a hazy feeling that she and Lucas had a relationship. Adam suggests they were all drugged. They each find a map in their pocket and deduce that the maps will lead them to their homes. They agree to meet at the playground the next night.

Lucas follows his map through a complex rock garden. He cannot stop thoughts of a carousel as he walks. He sees a man who he thinks is his father on a platform, working on the stones. When his father sees Lucas, he slips and falls while running down the stone stairs. Lucas’s brother Ryan arrives but does not recognize Lucas, who is trying to resuscitate their father.

Avery, a high school sophomore, wakes to a phone ringing after midnight on the first night of spring break. Her mother’s shocked reaction to the call prompts Avery to get out of bed. Kristen’s mother called to say the missing children are back but are unable to recall anything. Shocked and amazed, Avery and her mother wait for Max.

As Scarlett approaches the small, yellow house on stilts along a road leading to the beach, she recognizes home. Her mother is emotional and strangely paranoid when she realizes Scarlett is home; Scarlett sees that she reads magazines about alien abductions and the paranormal. Her mother tells her that she and the other children disappeared 11 years before. Scarlett has strange visions of hot air balloons. She feels she recognizes her bedroom, unchanged since she disappeared.

On the way to the police station, Lucas sees he is in Fort Myers, Florida. He wants to cry over his father’s death but fights it. Police put him in a locked room at the station. He meets Detective Mick Chambers, who says his work on “The Leaving” case 11 years before “pretty much ruined” his life (32). He says Lucas could be anyone and that he might have had a reason to kill. Lucas insists he will figure out what happened to him and the others.

Avery goes into Max’s childhood room to call her boyfriend Sam. He agrees it is amazing that the missing group is back. She recalls how her parents became very protective after Max’s disappearance, and how she later discovered accusations against the school district, principal, and bus company. She wishes Max would get home.

Scarlett’s mother explains that Scarlett and the others supposedly got on a small bus after their first full day of kindergarten. She shares news articles about the search, including one that reveals that a school shooting took the lives of 15 children months before The Leaving. Her mother also explains how that name came from Scarlett’s words the night before the disappearance: that she was going soon “to the leaving” (37). Scarlett also learns that several movies were made about The Leaving. She sees photos of herself and the others, noting a sixth abductee: Max Godard.

The police take Lucas home, and Ryan’s girlfriend Miranda lets him in. Ryan is upset over their father’s death and confused by Lucas’s sudden appearance. He asks if Lucas remembers their childhood, their mother, or their mother’s death. Lucas has brief flashes of memory but says nothing except that he recalls a carousel by the ocean.

Ryan reveals their father was working on Opus 6, a rock memorial to the six abductees. Lucas corrects Ryan: There were five. Ryan tells him that six children disappeared. Lucas doesn’t know who did not come back. In the shower, he sees he has a fresh tattoo of a camera lens aperture on his thigh.

In the morning, Avery’s father, away on business, calls after hearing that the missing children are back. Avery tells him that Max is not back, and her father decides to come home right away.

News reporters storm their porch and ask through the screen door why Max hasn’t come back. Her mother sinks to the floor, bereft. Avery shuts the door on the reporters and promises her mother that they will find him.

Police detectives question Scarlett, wanting to know if any of the abductees had violent tendencies. They explain about Lucas and his father’s death. On the way to an MRI, she asks her mother if they ever went for a hot air balloon ride. Her mother says they had no money for things like that.

Scarlett hopes the MRI puts her mother’s theories about alien abduction to rest. She asks about her mother’s life, and her mother tells her how her boyfriend, Steve, has ideas for them. The MRI shows an oval shape in her gut.

Police require Lucas to visit a cognitive specialist, Dr. Todd Sashor, who seems genuinely interested in Lucas. In a battery of assessments, Lucas shows he is educated in math, science, history, and current events, but knows nothing about literature or pop culture. He recalls scattered images from before the abduction, like the cubbies in his kindergarten room and his mother’s crash scene, but nothing in the interim before his return.

On behalf of the police, Dr. Sashor asks if he recalls a man with wrapping paper; Lucas says the wrapping paper was printed with Santa Clauses, but he cannot recall the man carrying it. Lucas decides to share his memory of the carousel but keeps the camera-shutter tattoo a secret.

Avery sneaks out the side door to bypass the media and walks to Opus 6, reflecting on her gradual decision to stop going there. When she gets there, she recalls how she and Ryan would play on the rocks and in the pond as children. Avery encounters Lucas; she grows emotional, demanding information about Max that Lucas cannot provide. He mentions his only memory: a carousel. Ryan arrives, and she hugs him in sympathy for his father. Ryan asks Lucas to leave; Ryan and Avery discuss the challenges of being the ones not taken.

Avery returns home frustrated and appears before the cameras camped out on her street. She introduces herself and reveals that since one of the returned teens remembers a carousel, the others must recall things too. She speculates they might be hiding information about Max. Later she feels trepidation over her actions.

The doctor tells Scarlett to watch out for the object when it passes through her digestive system. Afterward, Scarlett’s mother Tamara takes her shopping for clothing, but nothing feels like it matches Scarlett’s identity. Tamara reveals that Scarlett’s father was never a part of her life and that her grandparents are deceased.

Tamara works as a bartender and reveals that she was drunk when Scarlett told her about The Leaving. She contends, however, that she heard it “clear as a bell” (79), and she swore off alcohol altogether after Scarlett disappeared. Scarlett feels a deepening divide between herself and Tamara. She mentally corrects Tamara’s grammar and asks if she can call her by her first name; Tamara says no.

Detective Chambers oversees forensics technicians collecting evidence at the site of Lucas’s father’s accident. He tells Lucas that he is divorced from his wife and estranged from his daughter because he neglected them to work on The Leaving Case. He does not know whether Lucas will be charged in his father’s death.

Later, Lucas tours Opus 6 and wonders about a place at the highest point where a final stone seems to be missing. He also discovers a dilapidated RV hidden in the weeds at the edge of his family’s property. When he turns to head back to the house, Ryan is near and offers to show him the RV.

Avery asks Sam to pick her up, and they go to the park where they had their first date. On edge and overemotional, she tells Sam what she did on camera. When he says the police should handle things and that Max is likely dead, she decides to break up with him. Woeful, she begins to cry. Sam comforts her, and she decides to save their breakup for another day.

After shopping, Tamara takes Scarlett to have dinner with her boyfriend Steve. Steve is small but muscular with a mustache and a gold necklace. He immediately pitches Scarlett the idea of selling her story for a book deal, and her mother agrees. Scarlett feels trapped and dreams of running away.

Ryan shows Lucas the inside of the RV, which their father set up as an information center about The Leaving with old articles, newspapers, and a whiteboard with notes on the abductees. A note near Lucas’s name mentions the man carrying wrapping paper.

Ryan explains he was often bullied by peers and subjected to his father’s alcohol use and obsession with Opus 6. He mentions that his best friend was killed in the shooting that preceded the abduction, and Lucas had been present that day at an open house for moving-up kindergarteners. Lucas mentions wanting to kill the person who took him; Ryan shows him a handgun in a locked metal box. Without being able to explain it, Lucas easily handles the gun and attaches its magazine cartridge.

Avery finds her mother in bed crying over a note she found in the mailbox: “I’m close. I’m trying to get away like the others. Help! Max” (110). Avery calls Detective Chambers, who promises to have the note analyzed. He says it is likely a prank.

Tamara drinks alcohol at dinner, so Scarlett drives her home; she realizes someone must have taught her how to drive. After getting her mother into bed, she leaves for the playground. Kristen arrives soon after; she reveals that her parents are divorced now and want her to visit a hypnotist to regain her memory. Kristen tells Scarlett about discussing how memory works with Dr. Sashor; Scarlett will visit him the next day. Kristen says she recalled that she and Scarlett do not like each other.

Lucas and Sarah join Kristen and Scarlett; Adam doesn’t show up. They compare events and realize that each one has a repeated, unexplained memory: Lucas, the carousel; Scarlett, the hot air balloon; Kristen, riding a horse in a meadow; Sarah, a puppy. They exchange cell numbers for future contact.

After Sarah leaves, a news van arrives; Lucas decides the media might work in their favor. He, Kristen, and Scarlett tell the reporter about their memories. Lucas says they hope the person who owns the balloon, carousel, or horse might speak out. Scarlett drives them home; at Lucas’s house, seeing Opus 6 for the first time, Scarlett jumps out and climbs to the top where the missing stone is. Kristen stays in the car.