'Poster Lady' Won't Give Up Search For Son

"Mom, I'm at the pool. I need to go away for a while. There's some guys following me."

Then the phone goes dead. That's the last Gina Gardner hears from her 16-year-old son.

The police get a tip that he was taken by two men in a white truck. The police think he's dead.

Nine months later, Gina still rolls her red suitcase around the city putting up yellow "Missing" posters. The "poster lady" has been in the news.

Hundreds of posters are still up. A photo of a teenaged boy with long wavy hair and glasses. The police phone number and the date he went missing. A description of Matthew James Gardner: five-foot-11, 160 pounds, blue eyes, freckles, braces, a small scar on his left baby finger. "$5,000 REWARD" in heavy black marker.

It's 7 a.m., and Harold Hamilton has just put up five yard sale signs on poles in his subdivision. He and his wife are selling out and moving south.

As he opens his garage door, he sees a short, 30-something woman with swollen stubby fingers staple a yellow "Missing" poster over their new sign on the pole beside the driveway.

He approaches her. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but that sign is for our sale today. Please move yours."

She looks at him with grieving eyes.

"You care more about selling old furniture than helping a mother find her son?"

Harold's voice changes.

"You're the poster lady, aren't you? I understand that you are upset about your son being missing, but you can't abuse public space like this. People are searching for our yard sale."

Gina stands her ground.

"If you take it down, I'll just put another one up."

"Lady, you're crazy. You've got movie posters up all over town. One more isn't going to make a difference."

Her shoulders sag, and her eyes plead.

"If you help me find my son, I'll pay you $5,000."

Harold shakes his head as he walks back to his garage. He drags a wooden stepladder to the curb and tapes on a hastily made cardboard sign. He doesn't believe Gina has enough money to pay a reward. She's just a bent-over lump of sadness pulling a red suitcase around town.

With a final hopeless stare at Harold, Gina turns and walks off down the street. She mutters sadly, "Nobody helps anybody anymore. All people care about is money."

Meanwhile, people are arriving for the yard sale.

At 10 a.m., a muddy white truck pulls into the driveway. Two men who look like farmers head for the used tools.

"How long is the big tape measure?" asks the younger one.

"Fifty feet," replies Harold.

While stretching it out, the prospective buyer ends up next to the power pole. He notices the poster, looks at it carefully and then calls to the other man.

"Dad, isn't this the freaked-out kid we gave a ride to last summer? Isn't he still working for that chicken farmer in Willow Butte?"

Harold convinces the men to wait in his driveway.

Leaving his wife to work the yard sale, he searches frantically and finally finds the poster lady sitting on a green metal bench at the back entrance to the swimming pool.

"Mrs. Gardner, I know where Matthew is. Two men in a white truck are waiting in my driveway. Hurry. I'll take you."

She reaches into her red suitcase and pulls out a baking soda can.

"Who do I owe the $5,000 to?" she asks tearfully. "Them or you?"

"I don't know about them, but I don't want your money, Mrs. Gardner," says Harold quietly. "I was wrong about the poster. One more did make the difference."

April 19, 2008