This is how it feels when you realise your child is missing. The pit of your stomach freezes fast, while your legs go to jelly. There's one single blue-bass thud of your heart. The shape of his name , sharp as metal filings, gets caught between your teeth even as you try to force it out in a shout. Fear breathes like a monster into your ear? Where did I see him last? Would he have wandered off? Who could have taken him? And then, finally, your throat seals shut ........
Sound like a good novel?
Thats because it is. Jodi Picoult to be precise. That little paragraph rang very true for us on Saturday afternoon. It was a lovely day and we had a friend and her 2 children over for a bbq. Paul, very kindly offered to take the children (5 in total) across the road to the oval near Ross' school. Lynne and I stayed home to start on the salads and catch up in peace. That peace was shattered when Paul burst back through the front door after about half an hour, shouting for us to come and help.
Gethin was missing!
The tone in Paul's voice and the panic visible on his face was enough for me to realise that this was no joke.
After a very brief explanation, we continued the search with Paul going down one street and me down the other while Lynne made her way over to the other children. I can still hear the panic in our voices as we shouted his name. I was trying to scan the whole area for his blonde little head while at the same time trying to think what he was wearing that day and also banish from my mind thoughts of kidnapping and other evils. A car drove past and the driver wound down his window to ask what was wrong. When I explained his wife jumped out and started to look with me. She was ahead of me and rounded the corner to where Paul was searching in time to see Gethin emerging from under a construction site fence completely unaware of the chaos that had been going on. The gentleman in his car, very kindly reversed and gave me a ride to where they were. All this probably only lasted for a maximum of 15 minutes but to us it felt like a lifetime. The panic you feel when you start to contemplate what has happened to your precious child is horrific!
It just goes to show how easily a child can wander off - in the few seconds it took for Paul to spin the girls around in the air, Gethin toddled off under the construction fence where we think he went in search of the drinking fountains of Ross' school.
Thank goodness our story had a happy ending but that night I said a special prayer for those families whose story does not end happily.
Other than that, we had a very relaxed Easter weekend which involved plenty of yummy chocolate treats.
