Family...what it's like here anyway.

This isn't really my house. It just feels like this is what I have to conquer sometimes.

No walk last night, I had been on my feet all day working around the house and had only taken an hour off to record a podcast with a friend. Housework needs to get done, what can I say. By the end of the day, my upper middle back just between my shoulder blades was killing me. I feel guilty about no walk, especially with the weather we are going to have the rest of the week. Looks like I am down for a bit, so calisthenics in the house as a substitute. Lots of crunches.

But that's not what this is about today. 

I went to town last night to pick up some supper and the wife called. It seems that one of the local boys got into some trouble at school and was suspended for three days. Not the end of the world for an adult, but to a 13 year old, yeah. Turns their world upside down, to them this is it, something drastic has to happen. His answer? Run away. He left a note for his Mom and left.

What possesses the mind of a teenager to do something like that? To put their parent through such worry? 

His mother and I are old friends that surprisingly don't really stay in touch, although she lives just up the road. Oh, we speak to each other in passing, but we used to play together all the time when we were kids. Different worlds, so close together, yet so far apart. Funny how things change and you forget about people. I will have to rectify that situation. Stop by and say hi.

Back to the meat of this. My wife called and said my Dad, who's a deacon at the church, was already out looking for him. Now just cause Dad is a deacon doesn't have a lot to do with this, he would have been out there looking for him anyway. The boy had four hours lead time. I can walk three miles in an hour out of shape as I am. This is a thirteen year old boy, things don't look good. Who knows what is going through his mind? Who knows what could have already happened to him.

We've had a rape and a murder here recently. Actually within the last few months. There are, as I tell my little girl, no monsters under the bed or in the closet. The real monsters are the bad guys out there. Always, always, stick by Mom and Dad. We protect you with our lives.

So I hit the road. Riding up and down. Grid-ding out further and further. I know he has a fear of the dark so I check all the churches nearby. The little alcoves with a light on. Maybe a place to get out of the weather. No luck.

I start checking stores and old buildings that are vacant nearby, place I would go. No luck. I know he's scared. I'm scared. I can't let this happen this close to home. Not someone in my immediate community. Logan, my little girl, is so worried. Alex is her friend even though he is five years older than her. When he came to live with my friend (he's adopted) he had had a rough life. He was so tiny we actually thought he was her age. And they are still friends today. It's not a hero thing. I had to find him for Logan.

So for the better part of two hours I am riding around searching and I begin to notice something.

We live in a rural community. The traffic here at best is busiest in the mornings with all of us taking kids to school or picking them up in the afternoon. A traffic jam would be three cars here. 

I start seeing all these headlights, crossing here and there. And my fears are eased. The whole of the community is in on this. We've got an army.

You can joke about my little town, my community. Yeah, we don't have a Best Buy or a Dicks. We don't have an Applebees or even a McDonalds. You can't even buy a decent pair of shoes without driving 20 miles.

What we do have is this. Decent, loving people. People who will go in search of you when you have lost your way. Be it physically or spiritually. And they would never ask for anything in return. It's just something we do. And would do again.

In the end Alex was found asleep in the woods near his house. Cold and probably scared out of his mind. And I am sure that his mother loved and hugged and kissed him. All of the fear gone. Her baby back in her arms.

And I am sure that he may get his hide tanned today. Which is something I would think that I might do if mine did this to me. I know with all certainty that it would have happened to me at that age. 

But for now we are all safe here. And that makes my heart glad.

I had a talk with Logan last night. The same talk I will have with Sam when he is old enough. I may get mad, but there is nothing ever so bad that she can't come to me. Whatever it is, she's always my little girl. At seven or seventy.

Y'all have a good day. Go hug your kids, do something nice for a complete stranger. Let's make the world a place like my community. Care for others and you will get it back, I promise you.

S