So this will (hopefully) go down in record as my worst (and subsequently best) birthday to date.
I woke up at 3:30 am and couldn't fall back asleep. Perhaps my body knew it was my birthday and wanted to experience every possible moment - I don't know - but by the time the kids woke up at 7am I was knee-deep in a West Wing marathon.
Keith was lovely enough to take the kids downstairs in the morning after some cuddles and "Happy Birthdays" and the occasional "I want it to be my birthday"and I had the luxury of continuing my West Wing indulgence. I was then treated to espresso and crepes in bed. Keith didn't think he could make them but he did a better job than I usually do so I think he will now be crowned the Crepe King at our house.
We needed a couple of groceries so Keith took the kids out to the store so I could lounge around in my pajamas and enjoy a relaxing day at home. About half an hour later my Australian cell phone rang. This is uncommon as most of the people that call me usually text and not on a Saturday. Also it's rare that I have my Aussie phone near me since when I have the house WiFi I can text with my Canadian phone to friends and family back home. Anyway, with all that rarity in mind my phone started ringing by my head and I picked it up. I will likely be traumatized from the sound on the other end for quite some time.
All I could hear on the other side was what sounded like a strange, choppy version of Keith's voice. It took me a second to even realize it was Keith at all that's how strange it sounded. Then I thought it was the phone cutting in and out or that it might be windy outside until I heard the word LOST. Then I realized the breaks in the sound weren't wind or bad cell reception they were the sound of my husband sobbing. For anyone that knows Keith they know that this man crying at all is a very unusual occurrence. I've been married to him for nearly 10 years and I can count on one hand the number of times he has cried and it does not include our wedding or the birth of either of our children so now I'm scared. It's amazing when you do crisis management for a living how second nature it is to snap into. I guess training really is the key for that; if you train for a crisis over and over a switch turns on and you just go. I told him to call the police and I jumped out of bed into the nearest clothes I could find all the while saying over and over again out loud in a bizarrely calm voice "I have to get my son, I have to get my son".
Keith couldn't even verbalize where he was when he called. He could barely get out "come down the path" so I started running down the path and he waved me down at the end. He was on the phone with the police describing our kid "brown hair, green glasses, yellow jacket, four and a half years old..." that is really when it started to become surreal. This is where the amazing also starts. Keith was standing outside a neighbor's house. She had seen Keith at the window and thought he looked distressed and so her and her husband came out. When they realized our son was missing Daniella took Emily into her house to play with the toys so she wouldn't be scared. Her husband started searching for Cian with Keith. The man who was coincidentally picking up a rocking chair from their house got in his car and started driving around looking for Cian. Other people were on foot and on bikes up and down the path looking for him too. This is when Keith called me and I arrived. I am sure I looked like a wild animal running around in every direction looking for my son. At this point Keith was white as a sheet and he couldn't even speak to me because the only sound that was coming out was dry sobs. Honestly, that was one of the scariest things for me. Keith is always the rock. I am always whatever the not rock is in the analogy of one person being rock-like. I am the crazy and he is the sane. I am the ambition and he is the pragmatist. I am the extreme and he is the level-ground. So to see him unravel like that before my eyes was terrifying. It was like the ground was crumbling underneath me and all I kept saying (this time in my head) was "I have to get my son, I have to get my son".
I started running up an adjacent street to a condo complex. Sometimes Cian likes to check out the landings of places like that. A young woman stopped me to ask if she could get up to Epsom road and I said I didn't know and asked her if she'd seen a little boy with a yellow coat. Immediately she said "No but I will help you find him" and she started yelling for Cian and walking up other streets. People heard us talking and came out onto their balconies and minutes later I saw the same people in a group ask if they could help. It was amazing. It was only minutes later that same young woman yelled that they had found him up the path. I ran to the path and there were four of our neighbours and Daniela's husband on the bicycle escorting him down the path. Running to the edge of the path is where the "shield of crisis management" broke and I started sobbing. I'm pretty sure that Cian was doing fine until he saw his mother in hysterics and then he started crying. "It's ok mommy" "It's ok mommy". I remember people being there and I so wish now that I could thank all of them individually for helping us find our son.
We got to Daniela's house and Keith was there sobbing and Cian ran to hug him too. We were thanking everyone everywhere and Daniela's husband (who's name I hope to eventually remember) said "that's what neighbors do, they look out for each other". He comforted us out there on the street and then Daniela invited us in for tea "or something stronger if we wanted". The police were by at that point and Cian was already safe but they were also lovely and flashed the lights and rang the siren for the kids. Daniela has two girls who were so good to Emily - I'm not even sure she knew we had left her there to be honest. They gave us tea and "something to raise the blood sugar" and snacks and toys for the kids. They gave Keith two glasses of water and the colour started to return to his face. Daniela gave us her number so that Keith could come to her mommy group if he wanted or we could have a BBQ with the kids. Daniela's husband played with our kids while we drank our tea/water and had our snacks and recovered and he cuddled Em before putting them back in the pram for the walk home for lunch. We asked Cian to show us where he had gone and he showed us that he had doubled back up the path and gone to the top of the hill out of Keith's sight line. Keith thought he had turned a corner and so had been looking in an entirely different place. Cian's logic was totally rational but neither of his parents were when they thought he was lost.
They never did get to the store but that's where Keith and Cian are now because Cian was upset that they hadn't bought my birthday cake like they had planned. What you don't realize when you're four is that the best birthday presents can't be bought at the store: a healthy child returned to you after forty minutes of terror and amazing neighbours who drop everything to help you.
To our neighbours: I am humbled and blessed to have received such generous care. Thank you more than words can express.
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