The Lost Story: A Novel

Skya returned Jeremy to the real world with a gift for finding lost things and people, hoping that he could use it to find Emilie. However, Skya warned Jeremy that he would find the princess only when she wanted to be found, which could take decades. Jeremy’s mother moved them to Kingham, Oxfordshire, for a change of scene. Jeremy and Rafe were separated. Jeremy went on to read English at Magdalen College, Oxford, as a “private joke” with the universe since Magdalen was the seat of C. S. Lewis, who created Narnia, a magical kingdom like Shanandoah (214). 

When a tutor’s three-year-old daughter went missing, Jeremy used his gift to locate her. Jeremy’s rescue of the little girl attracted media attention, and he became known as the lost boy who found a lost girl. Thus began Jeremy’s career as a search and rescue expert. Jeremy dated wonderful women, such as Chi, a physicist from Lagos with whom he discussed the possibility of lost universes, but his heart belonged to Rafe.

Jeremy’s mother sensed that he was lying about his time in the woods but kept up a façade of polite distance. Once, shortly after their move to the UK, she heard Jeremy play Ludovico Eunadi’s “Primavera” flawlessly on the piano.