Losing my child

Like most peoples kids, mine wake up earlier than I do. Thankfully both of mine are independent and I trust them enough to let them watch TV for a while until I get up and showered. This morning after Patty had left for work, Matthew woke me to let me know he was going to go back to sleep (they get up with Patty).

I dozed off for another hour and when I woke up the TV was on so I called for him. I got no response so I went into his room and saw that he was not in his bed. Next I went downstairs and saw that his pillow and blanket was on the floor but he was not. I started calling out for him with no response. I stepped out front and call for him, then out back. I then started checking every room in the house. He was nowhere to be found.

At this point I'm growing more and more nervous. He doesn't wander off and there is not any one place close to home he's always asking to go to. I have no idea where he may have wandered off to, the shop maybe. I try calling our Neighbor Leah to see if he's gone over there, but she's not home. I grab my fire radio and start to gather my thoughts as to how I'm going to call this in when I decide to make one more pass through the house and look in every possible space he could be in.

I look behind and under everything on the first floor and run upstairs. I open all the closets, look behind the big chair in their room and under the bed. In the guest room I open the closet and call out his name. Nothing. I turn around and pull a sleeping bag off the bed and there he is. Dead asleep.

I call out his named, shouting really, and he barely wakes. I shake him and one eye opens, then he rolls over and goes back to sleep.

I'm completely drained and so very happy I didn't make the call starting a missing child search on our road. The last call like that in our Town brought out police, fire and the warden service. I'm also pretty happy that I didn't actually lose Matthew.

Today is almost my birthday

In roughly 23 hours I'll be 39 years old. Wow! 39 years old. I think I'm suppose to go out and by a Corvette and start sleeping with my secretary.

Note to self: Hire Secretary.