Lost

Dark clouds rolled angrily in the sky. The wind was howling, and the rain was pouring steadily. It was a dark and dreary day. The kind of day, that made one want to curl up under a blanket and watch movies. The kind of day that should be filled with nothing but hot cups of tea to keep the cold chill at bay.

Excitedly she waited on the corner at the intersection by their house. The wind gusted strongly, blowing her backwards into the guardrail behind her and flipping her umbrella inside out. Chuckling to herself at what a sight she would have been, had she been blown into the open gully behind her. She hardly noticed the driving rain and the gusts of wind as she spied the tops of the bright yellow umbrellas bobbing along next to the rice fields. Thing One was walking home from school with his neighbourhood walking group and this was the first time she was home to meet him.

Normally, she would be at work when Thing One made his way home from school. Hubs is usually the one to meet him, as his schedule gives him the freedom to be there. Today was a national holiday, and Thing One had had a parent observation day (Sankanbi) at school and he had asked her to meet him instead of Daddy just this once.

Having attended the sankanbi, she had confirmed with Thing One before she had left the school, that he would walk home with his walking group as usual, and she would be waiting at the main intersection to meet him.

As the group approached, her smile faded and stomach started to drop.

He wasn’t there.

Doublechecking that this was the same group he walks to school with, she frantically scanned the faces again. Being the only foreign kid, and the only one not wearing a mask, he should stand out.

He was not there.

Had he misunderstood where they had agreed to meet? Did he think she was meeting him at the school gates? She hadn’t thought so…

Recognizing the next door neighbours, she tried to keep the growing panic out of her voice as she asked, “Where is Thing One? Is he not with you?” and just in case her Japanese was not understood, she asked again, “WHERE IS THING ONE!? DID HE NOT COME HOME WITH YOU!?”

It took everything she had to not grab the 6 year old girl by her lapels and shake her, when she and her mother expressed surprise that Thing One was not just behind them in the line. “WHERE DID YOU LAST SEE HIM?”

A murmur of surprise, bubbled through the group at the realization that one of their members was not where he was supposed to be. She began to feel a simmering level of panic and frustration bubbling inside as the group turned and scattered in different directions to get home and out of the driving rain.

No one could give her an answer as to where he might be, so she frantically asked the neighbour to let Hubs know that she was heading to the school to find him, and took off across the street, her umbrella now blown inside out and hanging by a thread.

She didn’t notice her umbrella had been destroyed by a massive gust of wind. Her baby boy was not where he was supposed to be and nothing else in the world mattered except for finding him.

She ran up the road, her hair plastered to her her forehead, the remnants of her umbrella hanging limply in her hand. There were no yellow umbrellas cheerfully bobbing along the road now. All of the kids had made it home safely.

All of the kids, except for her precious boy.

Every scary movie; every horror novel; every dark and twisted news article she had ever read came flooding into her mind. Had some horrid demon clown lured him into a sewer on this cold rainy day? Had he wandered off into traffic and no one noticed he’d been flattened by a truck? Had he fallen into a rice paddy and been run over by an oblivious farmer plowing his field? Had some horrid child grabbed him and taken him away to bully him or harm him?

As she rounded the bend in the road, she spied a small figure, trudging along, hunched sadly under a cheerfully yellow umbrella, and encumbered by school bags. The sounds of sobbing echoed across the rice fields and drowned out the sound of the gusting wind.

With tears of relief in her eyes, she broke into a run.

“Muuuummmmmyyyyyy!” he sobbed. He looked up at her, tears streaming down his bright red cheeks. His eyes were like saucers in his tiny face and he looked so small and defeated under his huge umbrella and slightly too big school uniform, bright blue dinosaur rainboots on his tiny feet.

He tried to answer her questions about what had happened and why he was walking home all by himself, but his sobbing tale was muffled by her jacket because he was clinging to her, his shoulders shaking with sobs.

“The group was waiting…” “…huge crowd of people…” “… they were gone…”

White hot rage sparking through her relief, she replied, “WHAT!? They left without you!? I’ll have Daddy call the school and complain–“

“No Mummy. I got mixed up. I was with my walking group, but there was a huge crowd of people…” he explained, starting to cry again, “I got mixed up and followed the wrong group.”

Her rage dampened, she replied, “Okay, I guess we won’t call the school and complain.”

“A lady in the group noticed me and said I was in the wrong group, so I managed to find the roads that they always take me down and I found my way home. I was so scared Mummy, but… I saw an interesting tractor plowing a field.”

Chuckling at his shift in conversation, she gave him a squeeze, “You must have been so scared, sweetie. But I am so proud of you that you were clever enough to find your way back home.”

Relieved that her dreamy and often off with the fairies boy, had actually been paying attention all these weeks, she made them each a hot cup of tea and they cuddled on the couch as the cold rain lashed the windows and gusts of wind blew the trees wildly in the yard.

Lost… found and home safe and sound.