Lost Children Archive

The boy recalls a conversation with his father in which he described the whole United States as a “cemetery.” Shortly after this conversation, he explains, they visited an Apache cemetery in New Mexico to record sounds for his father’s “inventory of echoes” soundscape. The boy explains that “Apache” was actually the word used by outsiders to describe this group of Native Americans, as the word means “enemy.” The word Apaches used to describe each other was Nde, or, “the people.” The Nde referred to White people as “Indah,” which means “enemy” or “eye” (which is how the term “white-eyes” came about). He also explains that Mexicans used to call White people borrados (“erased people”), and that this term made him wonder about “who erased who from where” (216).

Their mother hears the boy and his sister playing their “lost children” game. She worries about the possibility of them getting lost in reality and makes them promise that if they ever do get lost, they will call her number and her father’s number (which she has them memorize and recite back to her). When she asks what else they would do, the boy claims that they would meet in Echo Canyon. The mother chastises them for this answer and instructs them to find a major highway and ask for help from someone who pulls over. The boy secretly tells his sister that if they get lost, they will actually go to Echo Canyon.

The girl accidentally kills a dragonfly. To honor the insect, they ceremoniously bury it and hold a funeral, singing songs they’ve listened to in the car. They also sing the only death song they both know by heart, a song called “La cama de piedra” their mom taught them. The girl suggests they kill more insects and make a cemetery.

The family goes to Echo Canyon and makes a game of shouting phrases to hear the echoes. The girl is confused about where the sounds are coming from and thinks people are shouting to them on other side of the canyon. At first, her parents don’t understand what she is confused about, but the boy immediately understands. He explains her confusion to his parents, then simplifies their explanation in words his sister can understand. Essentially, he acts as a translator between the adult world and the child world.

At the motel that night, members of the family converse about what they want most in the world. The father says he wants clarity. The mother says she wants to find Manuela’s daughters. The mother then asks the children what they want to be when they grow up. The girl wants to be an astronaut. The boy wants to “document things.” His mother mishears the title “documentarian,” and the father mishears “documentarist.” It’s clear that both are projecting themselves onto him.

That night, the boy can’t sleep. He takes the car keys and looks in his mother’s archive box, hoping to read more of Elegies for Lost Children. In the box, he finds a map of the desert with “XX” marked on it and thinks they must be for Manuela’s daughters. He decides that he and his sister will go find Manuela’s daughters in the desert. They leave before the parents wake up. The boy decides that if they find the daughters, they’ll go to Echo Canyon, and their parents will meet them there. He leaves a note and a hand-drawn map in the archive box explaining this plan.

Box V contains two maps: the mother’s map of the desert (with the two Xs the boy believes represent Manuela’s daughters) and the boy’s hand-drawn map. The boy’s map shows a blue line (which he believes is the train route of the “lost children”) and a red line (the path they plan to take aboard another train, departing in Bowie, Arizona). The map shows that they will continue to Echo Canyon (which he has misspelled “eco canyon”).

The box contains four books related to different “lost children” narratives: The Gates of Paradise by Jerzy Andrezejewski, Le goût de l’archive by Arlene Farge, The Children’s Crusade by Marcel Schwob, and Belladonna by Daša Drndić. The box also includes migrant mortality reports of six “lost children,” ages 9, 0, 14, 15, 8, and 11. There is a photograph of migrants’ objects found in the Pima County desert (including what appear to be a photo, a small tube of toothpaste, and a knife). The photo is accompanied by a loose note that reads, “A map is a silhouette, a contour that groups disparate elements together, wherever they are. To map is to include as much as to exclude. To map is also a way to make visible what is usually unseen” (250).

The box houses a series of historic clips—including a 1910 poster related to the Orphan Train Movement—a folder with a bibliography from Brent Hayes Edwards’s “Theories of Archive,” a photo of Geronimo and fellow prisoner on the way to Florida dated September 10, 1886, and an Anne Carson poem, “Father’s Old Blue Cardigan.” There are also several more loose notes related to various relocation camps and “lost children” throughout history. The final note reads: “Word, words, words, where do you put them? Exodus/Diaspora/Genocide/Ethnic cleansing” (256).

The boy packs their backpacks with two bottles of water, snacks, and a map of the Continental Divide Trail he finds by the door. He also brings along Elegies for Lost Children. The girl is hesitant to wake up and get dressed, so he has her put pants on under her nightgown. The boy lies and tells her that their parents have given them permission to hike to Echo Canyon. When she believes his lie, he feels relieved but guilty.

The children quickly get lost. The boy continues to study his map, and he consults Elegies for Lost Children like a behavioral guide. For example, he urinates outdoors because he recalls the boys urinating off the tops of trains in Elegies for Lost Children. He tries to write initials in the dust with his urine: CC for Chief Cochise, G for Geronimo.

They meet a rancher who drives them into a nearby town. In the town, they get water at a diner, feeling anxious that the adults there will realize they have run away. On their way out the door, “Space Oddity” begins to play, and they see it as a lucky sign. They play their walkie-talkie game, calling out between “Ground Control” and “Major Tom.” Elated and happy, they run from the diner. In the course of running, however, the boy loses track of his sister.

The boy looks for his sister until nightfall, then decides he should stay close to the diner so she can find him again. He attempts to sleep on the top of a boxcar near the diner. He reflects on the fact that his sister can sleep anywhere but he has always struggled to fall asleep. Using his flashlight, he reads from Elegies for Lost Children. In this elegy, the children cling to ladders on train cars. The “man in charge” handles them roughly, and even thinks threatening, violent thoughts toward one of the boys in his group. The boy thinks about how he’d try to get away from the “man in charge.”

The next morning, the boy recalls how his mother always superstitiously rode the subway facing the back of the train, so he goes to look for his sister at the back of the train. Sure enough, she is fast asleep under the last car. He holds her hand tightly, asserting that he’s “never going to let go of [her] hand now” (293).