Magic

I'm upstairs working yesterday and hear Beth hollering for Leon. It registers with me just long enough to think he must be into something he shouldn't be. He'll usually go into hiding when he finds candy or a dangerous weapon. Lucky for us, his hiding places are usually terrible, and his patience has a short life, so even if he can stay hidden he gives himself up within 60 seconds.

After a couple of minutes Beth shouts up a worried, "Aaron, help me find Leon. I think something might be wrong because he normally answers by now."

He went out back for just a minute and when Beth checked up on him, he was gone. She had already gone room to room. The front door is locked and he cannot get out front. So I do a sweep of every room calling out bribes and lies to get him out of hiding. This went on for about five very long minutes.

Silas, in the meantime, enjoyed this awesome impromptu game of hide-and-seek. "HOO hoooo! EE-on!"

I have a tragic sense of imagination in situations like these. If he's not hiding, he's in trouble of some kind. He's wandered off down the street or maybe he's got stuck or hung up somewhere and we can't hear him. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.

I moved my search outside and started looking up and down the street just in case he was trying to get the heck out of here. The search had been going on for 10-15 minutes at this point. That is way too long to be frantically looking for your child. It was SO much longer than any other time he's hid from us. Beth was convinced something was wrong at this point because it was so out of character for him. After I was sure I had looked over every part of the house, closets, cars and yard, panic set in for me. Beth was at the point of tears, and we were wondering if it was too soon to call 911.

Suddenly he's on the back porch with a huge grin on his face nodding his head saying, "That was MAGIC!" He drug the word "Magic" out in a whisper to try to convince us.

He said he had found the smartest hiding place ever. He had stuffed himself in a linen cabinet on the sun porch. We hadn't even opened it because we thought it was an impossible fit. Maybe it was magic?

WHEW. We had a little lesson about impromptu games of hide and seek. I hope he knows now that it's only fun when he lets us know when the game starts.

The rest of the day I had empathy pains for parents who never get the relief we got. I would lose my proverbial and literal...you know. Poopy.