the kid went missing

yesterday, we got a call from J, saying that D's mom called her to ask for her help in looking for her son. she lost him in a restaurant near our center.

brought him to the toilet, then had to go back to the car to take his pants, asked him to go inside the toilet.
when she went back to the toilet, there were no signs of D.

2 hours later, she went to make police report. the police over there called another nearby police station, who told them there's a boy matching the description. some good samaritan brought him there. and then D went back safely to his family's arms.

it was scary, i tell you. until i explained his absence to the JJB teacher, i had no time to stop and worry. and when i did, my mind started zipping and zapping, all sorts of dangerous situations came to mind.

but the weirder thing was, J said that the mom sounded very calm over the phone. and actually, when they showed up at our centre an hour after he was found, they didn't look as if they'd just been worried or distraught. which according to my schema, are the usual aftereffects of losing someone.

and honestly, i'd have been crazily panicky if it happened to me.

the best part was, when D opened the door, he was happily showing me his new pair of shoes, a grin on his face. it was accidentally exchanged with someone else sometime during his adventure. and he had no realization of what just happened to him.

dangerous.

actually, this kinda situation happened before at Tesco. one moment, he was with his family, and the next, no one had any idea where he went. according to the man who found him, D pushed his kiddie trolley out of the Tesco entrance barrier, with a roast chicken and something else in tow, went down to the lower level, went up the escalator again. and finally the man caught up with him and brought him to the information counter to call for his family.

and when he saw his mom, he proudly showed his "prizes" with a big grin on his face.

yeah, we could now laugh, see the humorous and brighter side of the situation. but damn if it's not scary.