Lost a Heathen - Sorta

Yesterday, I "lost" my oldest Heathen for about an hour. And it was all my own fault!

About two weeks ago, the Asst. Zookeeper and I decided that Heathen #1 was old enough to ride the transit bus from the middle school down to the YMCA for swim team practice. We found the schedule and the route and the time schedule and we got him a youth pass.

Heathen #1 was very excited about this. I was not. Although I knew he was capable of doing this, as the Momma I could just imagine all sorts of things going wrong.

I spent yesterday morning quizzing him on exactly what he was supposed to do after school let out. I quizzed him constantly. To the point that he was really getting annoyed with me.

He gets out of school around 3:10. At 3:15, I pulled into the little corner store next to the bus stop and hid in my van with Heathen #3 (who thought this was a HUGE game of spying on his older brother). The bus was supposed to come at 3:40. I watched the buses pull away from the school. No Heathen. I watched kids walk back and forth across the street for snacks. No Heathen.

I watched the bus arrive and depart at 3:40. No Heathen.

Figuring that he got side tracked in the school, I drove over looking for him. No Heathen. Stopped in the school office and checked with the secretary (assuming that he would need to get to a phone to call me and let me know that he missed the bus). No Heathen. I called home. No Heathen. The secretary called the bus company, who then radioed the bus driver. No Heathen.

I started to drive through the various streets between our zoo and the middle school thinking that maybe he started walking home. No Heathen. My cell phone rings and it is the asst. superintendent (the secretary called him). He had various personal checking the halls in the middle school.

He asked me if I had called the Heathen's cell phone to see where he was. At which point, I had to tell him that I wouldn't let my child have a cell phone because I thought he was too young. Talk about feeling stupid.

I finally decided to call the YMCA and see if he was there. I thought he might have caught a ride down with one of the other team members parents. Turns out, he had arrived at the YMCA about the time that I pulled into the corner store to hide!

When I picked him up after practice, I asked how he had gotten to the YMCA. He gave me the confused puppy look (where they wrinkle their brow and tilt their head to one side) and said, "On the bus."

He had gotten out of the middle school so fast (in fear of missing his bus) that he had caught the bus on the loop BEFORE I pulled in. I had to just have missed him.

If I had trusted him to do as I had told him and believed that he was capable of it, I would have avoided the entire situation. I haven't told him that I was hiding and watching for him to get on the bus.