Who Stole My Body?

Zackary Chance, a eleven year old boy, awakens to find that someone has stolen his body, and placed his head on a mysterious metallic base. ‘Who Stole My Body?’ explores the lighter side of being a bodiless head, with Zack experimenting with the metallic base’s ability to learn and perform activities, while unravelling the mystery of who took his body and its connection to the disappearance of his cousin Xavier. Two years previously on the day Xavier vanished, Zack, his then eleven year old sister Yancy, and Xavier who were known as ‘XYZ’ had gone up the mountain where the uncles had a lab. Zack eventually discovers that the uncles, who were scientists, were doing tests on Fractal Dimension Existences, which profess that different forms of the earth and humankind may exist in many different dimensions. These tests involved the ‘Fractal Wave Machine’ which comprises of giant nuclear powered speakers that produced sound waves. The scientific aspects of this novel are a backdrop for the relationships between Zack and Yancy and their friends and family. The fear and the wonder Zack has experimenting with the base and continuing with his normal activities, such as going to school and playing soccer, is the central action of ‘Who Stole My Body?’ Zack survives experiences such as asking and taking the prettiest girl to the school dance and almost getting dissected by the school bully. Yancy’s storyline drives the scientific aspects of the novel. She hides the fact that she inherited her Uncle Charlie’s genius, and that she had been working on ‘The Fractal Project’ since Xavier’s disappearance in spite of her mom forbidding her husband, Zack and Yancy to stay away from the uncles’ mountain. Yancy has a geltop (a government issued gel laptop) with which she connects to her uncles. She uses the O.C.D. (the Observation, Connection, Deduction) to unravel the mystery. Yancy also loves clothes and has a ‘grove’ in her head. The ‘grove’ is a collection of every item in her wardrobe in every mathematical combination. In a flash, she can add any accessory or clothing item she sees in a store or magazine to whatever suitable outfit in the ‘grove’. Zack eventually remembers that it was his cousin Xavier who stole his body. They must go to the mountain. Yancy must turn the nuclear core and the ‘Fractal Wave Machine’ back on to get Xavier back and Zack’s body back. When Xavier does reappear on the mountain top, he has Zack’s headless body beside him with a metallic ring at the neck. Zack’s head is placed on top and the two metal items merge and release, and Zack is whole again. As Xavier pulls Zack to the edge of the clearing, thousands of bodiless heads appear and then disappear as the machine is turned off. The family reunites in joy, however as everyone walks down the mountain, a bodiless head who managed to remain, hides in the bushes.