"What Happened to Judah Quinn?" by Lois Elizabeth Hicks

 –toying with a mystery

A family’s toddler disappears in a taxi while they eat inside a restaurant.

Lois Elizabeth Hicks lives in rural Randolph County. Lois—a wife, mother, and grandmother—worked as a high school teacher and school media coordinator for many years while providing hands-on full care for an adult son paralyzed with quadriplegia after a spinal cord injury. During those years she joined a 5-member Winston-Salem writing group and began journal entries of caregiving and respite day’s events. She now writes nonfiction stories based on those journal events. “What Happened to Judah Quinn?” occurred during one respite day.

Lois Elizabeth Hicks

Author’s Talk

For years, once a month, I drove the hour plus distance from my home in rural Randolph County to Winston-Salem. There, a five-member group gathered to read and share writings. Frequently, my readings were journal entries or articles about caregiving for my spinal cord injured adult son‒nonfiction stories such as “You Won’t Have to Lift Me” and “Wheels for a Wheelchair,” and “The Grendel in Me: Caregiving Meltdown.”

At one point, after I exhibited caregiving meltdown, my family started arranging respite times and foreign travel to my life. Thus, my writing came to include stories of events that occurred during those days‒nonfiction stories such as “You Are Never Too Old to Skydive;” “Adventure in Kayaking;” and “Incident at the Great Pyramid.” “What Happened to Judah Quinn?” tells the story of a frightening event that occurred during one respite day.