At about quarter to 4 this afternoon I called home from work, just to check on everybody, see what's going on, ask if I have to bring anything home, that kind of thing. Everybody was hunky dory, the family was watching "Dark Angel", I didn't have a grocery list to bring home and the boy was just getting ready to go to work. While I was on the phone, I heard his mother yell "I love you. Have a good day!"
An hour and a half later, the roommate calls and says "He's missing."
"What?"
"He's missing. His work just called and he never made it. They're wondering where he is. Come home."
I packed up my work stuff (which I was on the verge of doing anyway) and started walking to the bus stop running every conceivable scenario through my head as to where he was.
1. He blew off work and went ... somewhere.
2. His bus broke down and he was waiting for a new one. For a really long time.
3. He got jumped and beat up and was lying somewhere unconcious, bruised and broken.
4. He got hit by a car, didn't have his wallet on him, and is in hospital, unconscious.
5. He had a problem with his heart (which he has in the past), passed out and he's dead in the hospital.
Each of these scenarios I managed to shoot down. If he was going to blow off work, he'd have called in sick. He's not irresponsible enough to just not show up.
His bus, if it had broken down, *should* have had a replacement show up within an hour at the very most. Besides which, he left for work an hour early to make sure he was on time. Even assuming an hour for a replacement bus, he'd have only been a half hour late and his mother had called his work a couple times to see if he was there yet.
It would have taken 2 or 3 guys to jump him and beat him up and his route to the bus is very well travelled. If that had happened, *somebody* would have stopped and helped him, which means he would have been in the hospital, at the very least.
If he got hit by a car he'd be in hospital and some phone calls on our part would find him and we'd deal with injuries then.
If he had a heart arrythmia..... somebody would have found him and... I didn't want to think about that part.
6pm I got off the bus at my regular stop. I called home to see if she'd heard anything. She hadn't. I walked around the strip malls looking for a big crumpled heap of tan coat. I got on the bus that he would have taken and scanned the side of the road going to and (later) coming from work. I looked for evidence of an accident, I looked for a broken down bus, I looked for him walking to work or on his way home...
Nothing. I saw nothing. And, for almost the first time in his life, I had no idea where my boy was. He wasn't home, he wasn't at work, he wasn't anywhere between here and work that I could see. We called hospitals and he wasn't there either under his name or as a unknown subject. So that shot down 3 of my scenarios. Leaving the "lying dead or hurt in a ditch" and "blew off work". His mother had called his best friend, asking if he'd seen him. His friend immediately said that he'd get his truck and go looking for him.
In the meantime, I was on the bus home, clutching my cell phone, waiting for it to ring with the "We've got him"; waiting to be able to call with the "I see him." I didn't get the call. I didn't make the call.
I got off the bus and walked home, tears threatening at every step. The only thing running through my brain was "Where is my son? Where is my boy? What will we do?"
7:30 I walked in the house. The boy's girlfriend was pacing up and down the hall, her cell phone in her hand. His mother was in the bathroom drying her hair in preparation for going out looking with the best friend. I couln't speak to either one of them because I was sure that I would choke. I dropped my laptop onto a chair and walked back to the front door to take my boots off.
The door opened and in walked the boy. The girlfriend launched herself at him and burst into tears. His mother came out of the bathroom, stared at him, drinking him in, and leaned her head against the wall, closing her eyes in relief.
Until I saw him, I lived through the absolute worst 2 1/2 hours of my life. I couldn't imagine my life without him in it. I couldn't imagine what we would do. I couldn't imagine what we would do if we never found out what happened to him - if he'd just disappeared.
Turns out that the explanation is extremely prosaic. He got on the bus going in the opposite direction from work, figuring that the bus would go to the mall, turn around, and become the bus that would take him to work. It doesn't, of course, it's a cross-town bus. It took him 3 hours to get across town and back.
Once we finished threatening to slap him silly we commenced laughing at him. But gently. He'll get enough razzing at work. *grin*
