Almost Lost

Yesterday morning began with a call to my mother to see if she was available to be on call for picking up BubTar in case KayTar's therapy ran long. It did run long, but I didn't realize it in time to call my mother and give her time to get there, so I snatched up KayTar and hightailed it to his school (without getting a ticket!). When I arrived, the pickup line had disappeared and BubTar's teacher was standing in front of the building with two little boys. I waved at the one in the blue jacket, but as I got closer, I realized it wasn't BubTar. It was another child in a similar jacket. BubTar wasn't out there at all.

His teacher walked up to me and looked slightly worried and said, "Oh! I think he accidentally got into the after school care line, let me go get him for you." And she was gone. For a long time. And I sat there, not knowing where my son was. I left the house in such a hurry that I didn't grab my cell from the charger. I couldn't call anyone to see if they had mistakenly picked him up. I suspected my mom had picked him up, but I wasn't sure and as such, terrible anxiety driven scenarios of abduction and lost children, my lost child, tumbled into my mind. I must have been speaking out loud when I said, "Kyla, stop it." because I heard KayTar parrot it back to me. "Kywa 'top it." and then for good measure, "Kywa is mudder (mother)." Her latest factoid. Time continued on, and there we sat, just waiting.

The teacher returned, practically running, and I thought, "Oh God."

But she said, "I panicked when I went back in the school, he wasn't in after school care and I didn't see him leave. I found all the teachers who were at pick up time and Mrs. K (his PreK teacher) said she was the one who put him in the car and he is with grandma."

And that's when I exhaled. I knew that was likely where he was, but until I knew, for sure, I could not relax. I explained to her the small confusion regarding KayTar's therapy appointment and apologized for worrying her so. I drove home quickly, sure they were wondering where in the world we were, coming home to an empty house and all. They had probably tried calling my cell phone, the one I had left at home in the rush.

When KayTar and I rushed in, cartoons were on the TV, BubTar was sitting next to my mom, eating his lunch. No one asked where we were. My mom assumed therapy had run REALLY long and it was out of the house sort. She had no idea we had gone all the way to the school to retrieve him and found him missing. She thought that my phone call meant she needed to pick him up unless I called and said otherwise, I thought the opposite. Miscommunication, misunderstanding. But none of it mattered because my boy was home safe and sound.

"Mom, why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason, baby. No reason. Just come here and give me a hug."

And then our day went on.