The Things He'll Do

When I was a little girl, my two little brothers always asked my mom, "can we run away?" I don't know if they knew what that really meant. They would "run away" to the dirt hills by our house for the afternoon and come back when they got hungry. One day they left and didn't come home. It started to get dark and they were still gone. A phone call came and it was the police. They found them at the not so close Kmart. They were found safe and sound and brought back to us.

I couldn't understand as a child why my parents were so worried. Or why they were so mad. But today I understood. Today was my day of worry.

Peyson and I went to the school for a picnic. There were tons of kids and their parents all around playing and eating and enjoying spending time together. They started handing out gifts and I got up to throw away our plates. I went up to get my gift then turned to site Peyson to make sure he was ok. I couldn't see him anywhere so I looked for his little friend. Both were out of site. I saw his mom looking as well. I went for the doorway that was across the room. She went the other way. The only thing we found was each other. Were they together? Did anybody see them leave? Where could they be? I turned around to search down the long hall while she checked the elevators. I heard faint laughing and thought I was losing my mind and kept looking.

The number of doors and stair cases and halls were multiplying by the minute. They could be anywhere. Panic set in and I couldn't think straight or decide where to look. I came back to the hall and heard the little girls saying they were hiding in the bathroom. I ran to the door and they were found taking turns putting toilet paper down the toilet and flushing. They were safe. They were here.

The two little boys were missing for maybe 5 minutes. They were the most terrifying 5minutes of my life and I can only imagine the terrifying moments I have yet to experience. I wanted to be mad but all I could do was look at him and hold him and love him. I tried to tell him that what he did was very wrong and very scary. How do you explain to a 2 year old that playing in the toilet with friends is scary? How do you tell a 2 year old that he can never run away again?