My neighborhood consists of eleven different families. Since we live on a dead end street, most of us are close to one another. This being said, I would only have to focus on five out of the eleven families when I plan my disappearance because I do not see those other families, let alone contact them in any way. In this plan, I’m choosing to keep my own family informed and therefore placing a lot of trust on them to keep my plan to themselves.
My first priority is transit. I walk ten minutes to a nearby train station Tuesdays through Friday’s to get the class, and my neighbor does as well. On my way, I also see children from my neighborhood waiting for their school buses. To fix this problem I would most likely take the train that is much earlier than my normal one. This is to prevent anyone on my block from spotting me. Of course, I am not sure if anyone else on my block would be up at that earlier time, so I would have to test these being stages on my plan. My return from school might be a little tricky. There is no set time as to when some of my neighbors will come home, due to the hours of their jobs. This can cause me to run into them at any given time. My first step is to start coming home at different times every day to throw off anyone who might now my schedule. I would also have to acquire everyone’s working hours, which I can most likely get from my parents. When I receive this information I can then plan on what times I can return home during the week. Adding to this, I would also find out the location of their jobs, as to avoid going to or near those places.
Family cooperation is key. I need my family to make up excuses for my absence if they are asked. The go-to excuses could be that I am still at school, sleeping, or possibly visiting my sister at her college. This can slowly dwindle down to unsure answers, such as, “I don’t know, probably at school”, and then cease answering all together.
Social media comes into play. I have some of my older neighbors on Facebook and a few of the younger ones on snapchat. I can block and unfriend those from snapchat easily. Facebook, on the other hand, I would have to unfriend them and make my page for my friends’ eyes only. I will occasionally share a post of Facebook, but besides that I am mostly silent, so it will probably not come as a surprise that I stop posting. Deactivating my account is also an option.
Disappearing from my neighborhood would also mean that I could no longer attend birthday parties, get-togethers, or barbecues. This does not bother me. Work and school are known as priorities and I can therefore have a family member tell my neighbors those excuses.
On weekends I can simply stay inside, otherwise I can give a quick glance to see if anyone is outside when I need to leave. Ideally, I would exit my house through the back door, but my next door neighbor has a motion activated sensor that turns on when I leave through my back gate. Therefore, leaving through the front door is my only option.
This step may be unnecessary but I would like to add it anyway. I would minimalize my room as much I could, only leaving the necessities. Sometimes when the younger children, ages 3-5, are over, they like to play in my room. Leaving nothing for them to play with, or taking my artwork off of the wall, suggests that it is a neutral environment, one that is not occupied for the most part.
I wouldn’t take this as far as being concerned about transactions or the rest of my social media, because I feel that although my neighbors might care that I have “disappeared”, they would not investigate it because they have my parents. My parents can provide answers in the beginning and slowly withdraw them as time goes on. I feel that this method is best because after a while, my neighbors would most likely cease to ask about me.