A Mother’s Nightmare

I know reading this, all you mothers will be chewing your nails and shaking your heads.   This is a true story, I lived it, and now I am passing it on.

 

Alyssa and Sam are dog sitting for our neighbors this week, which means that several times a day they go next door to feed the dogs and take them out for a walk.  They have really been taking this responsibility seriously.  Many times Connor will accompany them because he thinks that he is big and should have the same responsibility. 

Yesterday Connor had swimming lessons again, and the girls were gone with the dogs by the time we got home.  Chad and I began to work on dinner while Connor and Kaylin played.   Time worn on and the girls should have been back, so I set dinner aside and went out to see if they were coming down the road.  No sign of them!  As I looked around I also saw that there was no sign of Connor either.  We had gone to a friends house during the day, and had loaded all the bikes in the back of the truck to take with us.  The bikes were still in the truck, so Connor could not be out riding.  He also was not in the back yard, or playing with the neighbors. 

I ran back into the house and looked in his usual places.  I knew that he could just have curled up someplace and fallen asleep.  But he was not on the couch, in the bean bag, up in his bed, or in his closet (one of the places I always forget to look).  Now I am really starting to get that feeling, you know the one!  That panic in the pit of your stomach when you can’t find something.  So I started knocking on all the neighbors doors, and even stopped the girl delivering papers if she had seen a little boy wearing a red and blue coat.  I was afraid that Connor may have decided to go out and catch up to his sisters.  He did not know where they had gone, but I got in the car and drove to the park that is  just over 1/4 mile away.  This is where Chad had told me the girls had gone, so maybe he would be there too.    He was not there and neither were the girls.  Ok, feeling is getting stronger!  Now where were the girls? 

I turned around and headed back home and I am starting to think that I have given my kids a little too much freedom this summer.  As I came over the hill I saw the girls up head, they were almost home.   Somehow I had missed them when I drove by only a minute or two before.  They had been hiding behind a bush when I passed by the first time,  something that should have made me mad about.  And was Connor hiding form me too?  Connor was not with them, and they had not seen him. 

Now  rushing the rest of the way home I ran into the house to let Chad know that I still could not find him anywhere.  Chad had continued to work on dinner; homemade ravioli that he was taking to a friend from work.  He did the usual run down, did I check .….?  By now the girls are back, have put the dog back in the house, and are walking around behind all the neighbor’s houses calling for Connor.  I even got some of the our neighbor Casey concerned too, when I went to ask in Connor was inside playing with his son.  So now I jump in the car again to drive a couple of other routes that we have taken for walks.  The first route I took leads over to Bishop Rush’s house.  They lives about 1/2 mile away, and the kids had walked the dogs that way on Sunday.  They all like to walk by The Rush’s house because they can stop and look out over the ocean.  This has me even more panicky as I scower the road and eye the steep cliff that falls away to the waves below.  Still no sign of a  little boy, wearing a red and blue coat, looking for his sisters.    

Of course I have been praying, and crying and now I was heading home to try another route.  As I head up the hill I saw a couple out walking.  I had just decided to stop and ask them if they had seen anyone else out, when my phone rings.  Thank goodness for cell phones!  I don’t have a real one, but a little prepaid one that doesn’t do anything special.  Special or not  it was a life saver to hear Chad on the other end.  They found Connor!

 

And where was he?  He had gone to the neighbors empty house to wait for his sisters to come back.  This had been one of the first places I had checked, but I had not fully investigated.  I had just opened the front door and called inside. 

Connor had made himself comfortable in a chair situated behind the door, and not visible during my quick peek inside. 

 

And there he had curled up and fallen asleep.