IT’S been five days since Alex Brown, 10, and Javani Brown, 7, disappeared, leaving their families and neighbours in Zion, Trelawny in distress.

Alex, a grade six student of Falmouth All-Age School, and Javani, a grade one student at Hague Primary, were last seen playing together near their homes on Saturday afternoon.

Both are of a slim build. However, while Alex, otherwise called ‘Romaine’, is of a brown complexion, Javani, also called ‘Prince’, is dark.

At the time of their mysterious disappearance, Alex was wearing an army green merino with a pair of short blue jeans and a pair of black slippers. Javani, when last seen, was wearing a pair of brown shorts with a blue T-shirt and a pair of blue slippers.

Yesterday, Alex’s distressed mother, Kaydie Palmer, said she had become concerned when, after 5:00 pm on Saturday, she asked a little boy who had earlier been seen playing with the boys if he had seen her son and he said no.

“They always play up by the site of a scheme where a section is fenced off. From 5:00 pm, we start to look for them. We asked people if they see them and they said they don’t see them. A brother of the other missing boy, who was with them earlier, was sent to look for him, but he came back to say he did not see them,” recounted the teary-eyed mother.

The community members quickly formed a search party, which combed the area looking, without success, for the two boys.

Now five days later, Palmer is hopeful that her son and his friend are still alive.

“I don’t have any fear that they are dead. We checked two tanks in the community and the only thing we found are pampers in one empty one, and just a little water, which can’t pass their knees, in the other,” she said.

She is appealing to anyone who may have the boys to take them home.

“Mi feel sad because me can’t see mi son anymore. If a somebody have them, please send them home — please,” she pleaded.

Alex’s grandmother, Eulalee Mitchell-Gordon, said she is deeply traumatised by the disappearance of her grandson.

“I can’t sleep. Romain generally come and touch me and say ‘Mommy, I come for shampoo to wash my hair’. He would tell me when he is leaving from school and when he comes home. When mi see Monday morning come and I don’t see him, tears come to my eyes,” the elderly woman said sadly.

Derronie Palmer, one of the boys’ neighbours, also expressed her anguish.

“I feel it morning, noon and night. We cannot sleep, drink [or] eat. The first thing as our eyes open, the two boys are before us. It is so sad to know that it has reached our back door. We hear these things in media, but never know it would reach our door step. [It is] very painful; we have sleepless nights,” she said.

At the same time, Palmer was full of praise for the community members who, she said, have been supportive of the distressed families.

“When one batch leave another batch comes to the homes,” she said.

When the Observer West visited the community yesterday, Javani’s parents were not at home.

The police are asking anyone knowing the whereabouts of the missing boys to contact them via the Falmouth Police Station at 954-3271, the police emergency number (119) or the nearest police station.