I've been thinking about my favourite character, David, and got to wondering about Saddler.
So, a kid gets hit by a car, is given some rather fatal injuries, and hospitalized. His parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, and cousins ALL go to the hospital to visit him, see that he's 100% perfectly fine, despite looking like he had been smooshed a day earlier. Then...he just disappears one night. And #23: the Pretender comes and everyone is like, "So yea, Tobias has a relative he never knew about."
Stop for a moment; take a few steps back. How did Saddler's family react?
Yea, I realize there's a line in 22: The Solution that goes something like Saddler's family had to accept that miracles weren't real. Yea, fine, ok. A miracle is one thing. But David was walking around as Saddler for at least a day, if not a few hours. Jake's parents saw him. Rachel's parents saw him. Then poof and everyone's all "Well, miracles don't happen."
But clearly one did! At least, from their POV.
Now, it's been two years since I've read the Solution. I'm not sure if Rachel mentioned that the hospital staff found the real Saddler's body...But I don't really recall that anywhere in there.* So, for now, we have to assume that a very gloomy, distraught, and freaked out family just left their relatives and went home to start the therapy that I'm 100% SURE they endured for the rest of the series.
Seriously, though, what the hell went on there?! Did they think he just went missing? Well, how could that be? Surely he told someone--Saddler's parents, or Jake's or Rachel's-- that he was going to Taco Bell with Jake. What, Jake just LET someone abduct Saddler? Oh, you think maybe Saddler ran away from town due to PTSD--you know, nearly dying could have that effect on a person. Nah, I'm not buying that. Maybe, they really DID find Saddler's body in that elevator shaft? Ok...But that doesn't change the fact that the family was with him almost 24 hours and he seemed 100% normal. So, he goes from mangled, to perfectly fine, to mangled again?You couldn't play that off as a hallucination--everyone saw it! What was it, collective hallucination?!
I'm curious as to what you lot think. Here's what we can start off with--though, these theories do NOT sit well with me:
1) They found Saddler's body eventually.
2) Saddler ran away or was abducted.
3) The family just completely accepted that the son they saw--100% healthy and without injury-- just disappeared with no explanation.
I'll throw in my own two cents as the 4th theory:
4) Saddler's family got Yeerked:
[spoiler]So, Rachel and Jake go home. Saddler's parents are just like, "Where's your cousin Saddler?" And Jake just says: "What? The one that clearly died in the hospital, even though he was just here? No auntie and uncle No-name, I haven't seen your dead son. Maybe he's still dead at the hospital where we all saw him die. Well, I'm sleepy. Gonna get some shut-eye. Got some heavy duty Yeerk-Fighting to do tomorrow. Sorry about your dead son, who is dead and didn't heal completely like everyone here saw him do."[/spoiler]
Or...The Animorphs send an anonymous call to the hospital, telling them where they might find the body of the 100% healed boy they all saw rise from his death bed earlier in the day. The hospital staff find Saddler's mangled and smooshed up body and are obviously spooked. Controllers infiltrating the hospital Yeerk the people who find the body, and call Saddler's immediate family--excluding cousins-- and tell them they have some bad news. Saddler's family is then Yeerked themselves, to make sure they keep quiet about the situation. THAT, in my opinion, is the most likely explanation short of the Ellimist reversing time to make it so that Saddler never existed.
Thoughts?**
*If someone has the book and could refer to the end, let me know if it is.
**This is extremely long winded.