“Ethan!”
Her voice sounded foreign even to herself as she rushed through the door of her house. Ever since Tara Wright had gotten that call from Ethan’s school her heart hadn’t stopped frantically beating. “Ethan!”
Please be home. Please be home.
Tara thought back to that moment the school had called to ask if she had come by early to pick up her son. Everything turned to slow motion as her mind froze and heart stopped before panic set in.
“What do you mean?” She had tried not to overreact, but deep down she knew that something was terribly wrong.
“You see…We cannot find your son anywhere, and we wondered…” That’s when she lost it.“What do you mean you cannot find my son?” She normally didn’t raise her voice or lose her calm composure. But this was different.
They had lost her son?
As the school assured her they’d already involved the authorities, Tara’s whole world crumbled around her.
Finding her way as a single mother after losing her husband was hard enough to navigate. But losing her son as well would crush her.
This couldn’t be happening.
Panic-stricken, Tara ran and searched her house praying Ethan had somehow found his way home. But when she couldn’t find him anywhere she leaned over the kitchen counter and broke down in tears. Fear clutched at her heart, and…
“Mommy?” Tara’s head jolted up at the sound of his voice. Was she hallucinating? “Why are you crying, mommy?”
“Ethan!” She’d probably never moved as quickly as she did there and then, falling onto her knees and tightly hugging her son, squeezing him so hard to make sure he was real. He was home. “Where have you been?” she asked, choking up.
“In the treehouse.” She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, thankful her son was safe. She had to be careful on how she’d handle the situation. What on earth had prompted her 8-year old son to leave school and walk 3 miles? All alone?
“You can’t just leave school like that, honey. Everyone’s been looking for you.”
“Why?” She lovingly stroked his cheek and looked softly into his eyes.
“Because you left without telling anyone.” Ethan looked away and frowned not wanting to say anything, but Tara waited patiently for him to open up.
“I quit school.” It wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. She thought he loved school.
“You can’t just quit school, sweetie.” And then as she saw the tears in his eyes well up and his lower lip quiver what he said next pierced her heart like thousand daggers.
“Dad quit us…so I quit too.”
As much as she had tried to protect Ethan from the pain of losing his father, Tara realised that she hadn’t been able to shield him from it all. She wrapped her arms around her son’s small frame and they sobbed together.
They were a team now. And whatever they would face, they’d get through it together.
Opmerkingen