FREAKED OUT!

I love our neighborhood because there are so many BOYS for my boys to play with. It seems like every other family on the street has 2 or more boys right around the age of my boys. Yesterday when Henry came home he asked if he could play at a boy's house that is up the street. I agreed and let him walk up the street. Later when George came home he wanted to play and he asked where Henry was. I said that Henry was at that particular boy's house. George didn't know that boy so he decided he just wanted to play with a boy down the road. I agreed to that with the condition he finish his homework first. He doddled and toyed around with his homework for over an hour. When the realization washed over him that he was wasting his sweet playing time, he wrapped up his work and bolted towards the door.

As always, I checked with him about where he was going. We discussed which friend and he left.

I finished dinner I looked at the clock. Shoot, it took me longer than I had expected. Henry had just returned home so I asked him to run to the friend's house and tell George to come home. Henry left and returned with just a few minutes. He said, "Mom, George is not there."

"What do you mean?" I asked Henry.

"George isn't at (so and so's) house."

How odd, I remember George telling me he was going to so and so's house. Because Ruby was sleeping in her crib and Teddy was sitting on the potty chair, I asked Henry to go next door and see if George was there. He returned a short while later with another 'No.' I picked up the phone and started calling around. I called every friend that lived in walking distance. All answered 'No.' George was no where to be found. I started to panic. I went outside and started calling his name. The neighbor's across the street were out playing in the falling snow.

"Does George happen to be over there?" I called out.

"No, I don't think so." The older son called back, and returned to his snow shoveling.

The snow was coming down in fat heavy flakes and building up all around. I scanned the street and asked a neighbor to help me look. A pitying neighbor drove up and down the neighborhood searching...and while he was searching, asked two snow shovelers to help search too. I called even more friends and grandparents...all said 'no.' Where could he be? It was nearly freezing outside and no one had seen him! Flustered and upset with thoughts of absolute horror running through my mind, I decided I needed to call the police. I held back tears as I turned to go inside.

I walked back toward my house and said a quiet prayer for help. The sudden simple thought came to me. Check the neighbor's house again. I shook it off and continued towards the door. Check the neighbor's house again. So quiet and peaceful the simple thought washed over me again. Feeling silly and embarrassed to bother them I tried to shake the feeling; however, the thought persisted. With a sigh, I walked over to the neighbor's house and knocked on the door. The younger son, George's age, answered the door. As he opened the door, he yelled over his shoulder, "George, your mom is here!"