Vanished...

To say I'm a bit of a worrier would be a bit of an understatement.  My boys are forever mumbling things like "Overprotective!" and "Helicopter parent!" under their breath at me.  As if I can't hear them. Puleez!  I have the hearing of a mother owl.  I hear everything. 


And I don't think I'm a helicopter parent.  I've met some of those and trust me, I am not one.  But...I do worry.  Worry I do.  I think I was born with the worry wart gene and it has only been magnified by motherhood and life experience.  


I don't leave the house without praying for the safety of myself, the Darling wieners (whether they are going with me or staying home)  and whoever else I happen to be transporting in my car that day. The boys or Charlie do not leave the house without my praying for their safety and I pray for the safety of every single person I love on a daily basis.  


Me and God?  Are real tight.  Yet still...I worry, worry, worry.  


Well...yesterday my worst nightmare sorta came true.  


I have this little carpool thing going with another mom.  We each have a kid in the elementary school and a kid in the middle school so she takes them all each morning and I pick them all up in the afternoons.


The elementary school lets out a full 50 minutes before the middle school so I have a good bit of time to kill.  Yesterday I had a parent/teacher conference with Dracen's teacher at the elementary school at 3:15 so Dracen stayed with Charlie and I had planned on picking Devin and his friend up at regular time, 2:55, dropping them each off at home and heading straight back to my appointment at the elementary school.  


But the line was backed way up when I got to the middle school to pick them up (probably because it was raining and after school practices were cancelled) so I had to take them with me to the elementary school so I could make it on time.  I hate to be late.  


They are both twelve years old and pretty responsible boys for the most part and I didn't think I'd be in there ten minutes. We live in a Mayberry kind of town so I left them the keys to listen to the radio, told them I probably wouldn't be more than 10 or 15 minutes and said, "Just don't start the car!"  Not that I thought they would but  you know, just wanted to lay down some ground rules. 


I ended up being in the school for 15 minutes so I practically ran out of there, tripping over the tip of my shoe in the hallway and nearly busting my face on the floor, praying the teacher had not seen me through the doorway.  I hauled arse out the front door and bolted through the rain with no umbrella or jacket, opened up the car door, jumped in and had my heart sink like an anchor to the bottom of my toes...


THEY.WERE.GONE!


VANISHED.

Deeeep Breaths!  In and Out. In and Out...Breeeathe...Just Breeeathe...


What to do...What to do...What to do?! The keys are gone.  They took the keys.... Book bags still here. Cell phone!  Yes!  I knew that thing would come in handy! (We finally broke down and got Devin one a couple of weeks ago)...Straight to voice mail. Sh**!  Where are they?! It's raining!  Why would they go out in the rain?Somebody took them!  Oh my God!  Oh my God!  Somebody TOOK THEM!!!  


I jumped out of the car in the rain, looked in the front door of the school and in the media center but saw no sign of them.  Although I did not think it was likely that somebody kidnapped two 12 year old boys out of the parking lot of the elementary school in broad daylight in Mayberry where everybody knows everybody, my worrying mind automatically began assuming the worst.  


Normally, I think I handle myself pretty well under pressure but y'all, I was flat wigging the bajeebies OUT!  This was not like Devin.  Dracen? Yes.  Never in a million years would I have trusted him to sit there and probably still won't when he's twelve but these two?  I trusted. Completely.  To sit right there outside the school they both attended for seven years and rock out to some tunes until I got back.  For 15 minutes.  


Somebody took them!  Oh Dear Lord, please bring them back!  Please, please, pleeease!!! Bring them back!  


Do I call the other kid's mom at work and worry her?  Do I call 911?  What do I do?  What do I do?  Arghhh!!!!  HELP ME!!!


I must have done circles in the rain in that parking lot, flailing my arms around and slapping my hands to my forehead, at least five times before I finally called Charlie at home.  He tried to calm me down and reassure me that they were most likely fine but I could not calm down.  I was just about on the verge of a nervous breakdown up in that elementary school parking lot.  In the pouring down rain.   On a Tuesday afternoon.  


Every single documentary, t.v. show, book, movie, article I had ever seen or read about kidnapping was racing through my mind as I waited for Charlie to get there.  He had called the other boy's dad, who really didn't seem concerned or worried at all.  And he really didn't need to be because I WAS WORRIED ENOUGH FOR ALL OF US.  


Nearly 20 minutes had passed when I saw what looked like them pop out of the front door of the school. Oh thank YOU, Sweet Jesus!  Thank You!  Thank You!  Thank YOU!  I leapt out of the car, went tearing across the parking lot with my wet hair and clothes, probably looking like a suicidal maniac (judging by the looks on their faces) and lit into them...


"Where WERE you?!!!  Wh-whh....I was worried SICK!  I thought somebody TOOK YOU!...Y-Y-You scared me to DEATH!.."  


Turns out they had gone in the school to talk with their 6th grade teachers from last year and there was only one there who kept talking to them and they didn't want to be rude and tell her they had to get back.  


Though shaking visibly and probably looking more than a little manic, I was able to gain control of myself, call Charlie (who was already pulling up at the school) to cancel the Amber Alert and drive the little runaways home while giving them a lecture on how not to push a mother with a worry wart nature completely off the  edge of the cliff of sanity she was already dangling by a thread on. 


But at least they thought to take the keys because, as Devin so eloquently put it, "We didn't want anybody to jack the car." 


Just Breathe.


Just


Breathe...