(More than) Fourinarow.net

I think I’m still a little paralyzed with it.

Jack was no where to be found when I went to pick him up at school today.  No where.

I pulled to the front of the school in the same place I do every day, but he wasn’t there.  I looked around.  I had the other kids look around.  I tried unsuccessfully not to panic.

I parked.  I walked around the front of the school until there were no other kids left.  No Jack.  I hauled the other three into the school and to the office.  No Jack.  The secretary started calling around and the vice principal walked with us down to his classroom.  His teacher was there.  She’d seen Jack leave just like always.  He was talking to his friend Alec.  But, I had seen Alec and Jack hadn’t been with him.  We called Alec’s mom.  She didn’t have Jack and Alec told her he didn’t know where he was.  She headed back over to the school to help us look.

The school secretary started calling all the parents in Jack’s class, starting with the boys while the rest of us continued to look.  Dan headed home from the office.  I circled the block in the van.  His teacher checked the far parking lot.  The VP checked the rectory.  Nothing.

Finally, I told the teacher I was going to swing by the house to see if for some reason someone had brought Jack home.  Another mother, perhaps.  As I drove the 2.5 miles home, we all kept an eye out for Jack.

Have I mentioned that it’s 1 degree outside?  Without the windchill?  I was scared to death that Jack had either been nabbed or that he was freezing to death somewhere.  I knew it wouldn’t take long in this weather.

As I reached the last intersection before turning for the house I spotted him.  There was Jack.  Walking along the sidewalk in front of our church.  I couldn’t believe it.  THANK GOD.

Now that I knew he was alive, I was going to kill him!

I honked, he spotted me, I jumped out of the van and asked him a thousand questions at once, both happy and mad at the same time.  I grabbed him hard and held him to me while he screeched that I was squashing him.  THANK GOD THANK GOD THANK GOD THANK GOD.

Nothing in this world could possibly invoke more fear than having a missing child.

As for why Jack decided that today – of all days – he was going to WALK home, despite the fact that I pick him up EVERY day, who knows?  Maybe under other circumstances I’d be proud that my son walked 2.5 miles toward home.  That he was “very careful.”  That he crossed with the crossing guards the whole way.

His excuse was that “you always take too long to pick me up everyday,” (despite me usually having to wait on him.)

Anyway, after a talk from me, a talk from his Dad, a call from his teacher and a visit from his friend’s mom, I’m hoping that this will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.