You know that moment when you’re at your in law’s house and you’re laying on the couch recovering from the eight pounds of spicy chili you just ate for lunch and your mother in law and four-year old son come in from working in the garden and your wife asks, “Where’s Gideon?” your two-year old son and your mother in law says in bewilderment “I thought he was with you!” and everyone freezes for one second like they were slapped in the face and then four adults sprint and scatter to separate corners of the large property where ditches and tractors and busy roads are now seen as death traps and they almost leave your four year old behind in the process and the world slows down to a stumbling pace and a fog develops around the corners of your eyes and you ask the neighbors if they’ve seen a two-year old riding on a four-wheeler and they ask, “You let a two-year old ride a four-wheeler?!” and you want to explain that it is battery-powered and slow but you don’t have time so you keep running and scouring the perimeter of the neighborhood in a breathless panic and you scream “Gideon!” what seems like a million times fearing the unspoken worst and knowing your wife is about to pass out about right now and you sprint back to your house two doors down and check the back yard and see nothing but toys and you feel like this moment will change your life forever as a dark cloud approaches your hope and you yell at your next door neighbor standing in his driveway “Gideon’s lost!” and he looks at you with a puzzled expression and points and says
“He’s right there standing next to your front door”
…
…
…
And you round the corner to see your little red-headed boy playing with the faucet, thirsty, waiting for you to come home, wondering what all the fuss is about
Has that ever happened to you?!
Bryan Daniels
Chief of the least 
YES! This happened with us to our two year old at a wedding reception recently. At a church located on a very busy street with people going in and out the door frequently. That panic is so horrific and everything flashes before your eyes! And you definitely don’t have time to explain anything to people, you just want them to tell you where they saw him or offer to help. We found our boy in the middle of the huge room, trying to snatch cake from a table. Totally had the “what’s your problem?” Look on his face.
Twenty minutes of parental terror. Never want to repeat it!
That’s scary! Those little guys know what they’re doing they just don’t know how to tell anyone!
Happened to me at Sea World. She was right beside me, I turned around, turned back and she was somewhere in a sea of color. I was just about to call out the national guard when I saw her playing the steel drums across the courtyard from me.
Absolutely! You are not alone!
There’s something special about 2 year old boys–ours slipped out of the house one VERY cold morning, still in his PJs to go down to our neighbor’s house for a treat. We didn’t know that that’s where he had gone but our frantic calls brought out another neighbor who said, I see a little guy in bright red Winnie the Pooh PJs three doors down….yes…been there…gotta love ’em!
Our three year-old decided to hide right before bedtime… We were unable to find her as her older brother taught her to be quiet when hiding…. For about 5 min of frantic looking around the house…. Finally found her in her hiding spot smiling satisfied….
Yes! When Josh (5th of 6 children) was just 18 months old he climbed over a three foot high chain link fence and disappeared. I was actually in town with one of my other children (before advent of cell phones) and my wife was in panic mode for 30 minutes while neighbors helped her look for him. After a brief prayer she saw him a block away come into view and then disappear again down a sidewalk. When she got to him he was playing with toys on a porch and completely unaware that anything was wrong. Glad Gideon was OK!
I couldn’t even imagine 30 mins! Thanks!
I know that moment of panic. (Usually in a shopping mall in my case:) Thank God, it never lasted too long.
Yes, I’ll never forget losing my son for about 5 minutes when he was 2. He was in our backyard shed, sitting on the tractor. I had run to our pond and back, yelling the whole time, searched the house, searched our other garage all before finding him perched on his beloved tractor. Never forget the panic. Never forget the relief. So happy all ended well.
When my nephew was a toddler. We all thought he was with the other adult. The mom was in one room. I was in a room and the husband in a room. Suddenly we heard him fall down the steps. He all did the “I thought he was with you” reaction after having run to where he was.
What amazes me is that Jesus did this to his parents too. Jesus stayed in the Temple instead of going home with his parents. I bet his parents raced back to Jerusalem as fast as they could to find him.
We always worry about our three children and now our two grandchildren. On July 27, 1981 Adam Walsh was abducted from the Sears Store in the Mall. Since then and even with what is going on now with the three girls abducted for ten years the concept of a missing child scares the dickens out of people. I actually looked for Adam while I was a school teacher and helped raise money for the Adam Walsh foundation. Reve, the mother of Adam sent me a card for my help. So do I agree with you of the horror of thinking you could lose a child. In the words of Sarah Palin, you betcha. Look up Adam Walsh and you will see the real horror of that story. His dad John Walsh had a show called “America’s Most Wanted.”
Thanks for reading my short story on Salvation. I really appreciate it and will post more short stories in the near future. Keep in touch, Barry