Runaway

Last night I did something I thought I would never have to do. I called 911 to report a runaway child. I was on my way home from shopping and noticed a young boy, around 7 years old, walking along the curb in the dark all by himself. Now I don’t know about you but I found it to be a little odd considering it was night and he was all alone. To say the least I didn’t feel comfortable, so I call 911 to report it and then circled around to catch up with him. When I was circling I couldn’t believe how many cars were just passing him by and it didn’t seem like anyone was even interested. Well I caught up with the little boy, rolled down my window and asked him if he needed help. He told me “No, I’m fine” but he looked to be really upset. I asked him again and he told me that he had run away from home. I was crushed. A little boy all alone in the dark feeling lost and unwanted, he could have been one of my boys. I picked the phone up to call 911 again and while I was dialing a speeding ambulance came up with flashing lights and scared the kid, who then ran off into the woods. It was only a minute later when a cop pulled up and went into the woods after the boy. I went home not knowing if the police ever found him and was left very uneasy. So being who I am, I called the non-emergency police number to check on the little boy. Turns out he was found and returned home. Thank God, he was safe or was he? It got me thinking what he was running away from. How was his home life? Was he being abused? I will never know, but I can rest in knowing that I did something. I wasn’t like all the other people driving down the road last night. I didn’t just pass him up and ignore an obvious problem. Would you have stopped to help a little kid on the side of the road? Wouldn’t you want someone the help your child if he or she needed it? I believe that we live in a society that teaches us to do for ourselves and not to reach out and help others in need. We like our lives to be easy and that is accomplished as long as we keep blinders on and look straight ahead. I guess you can say that I don’t want my life to be easy.