Lost Boys

Rachie shared a comment in response to my last post that reminded me of an incident that happened with my brother (the one in Iraq) when we were both very little.

It was Christmas. I don't remember how old we were, but it must have been when we were 3/4 and 5/6. Mom and Dad had taken us to the mall to do our Christmas shopping. Dad had gone to another store to get something for Mom. I remember walking along with Mom, stopping every so often to look into windows. She told the two of us to stay close by her, but after looking in one window, when we turned around, my brother was gone.

Of course, I wasn't frightened, just annoyed that my stupid little brother was being naughty. I was also feeling rather smug that I had obeyed and was the good child. Mom must have been terrified. There was an awareness of child abduction even back then, though not like it is now.

We looked for my brother, with no luck. Before long Mom was talking with a security guard. At some point we headed for the store Dad was in, to let him know what was going on.

By the time we got to Dad, though, the whole thing was cleared up. Dad had my brother! It turned out my brother hadn't noticed when Mom stopped to look at the last store display. He'd just kept going. I don't know if he even noticed he was alone, before he hit the last store in the direction he was going. But when he reached that big anchor store, he realized his mother wasn't there. He started crying.

Some kind person took him up to store security and they announced over the loudspeaker that they had a lost child. Now, remember, Dad had no reason to think this might be his son. But, he got a funny feeling when he heard that announcement and decided he needed to check it out. My brother was probably never more happy in his life to see our father.

So there you go. One of those family stories that will haunt my brother the rest of his life as it gets retold every Christmas.

And then there's the time I got lost. But that's a story for another day.