Number Three

Number three came many years later when I was a single mom of three, and I got up for work, went in to wake Mel up for school and found her bed empty and the bedroom window wide open! I can not begin to tell you the thoughts that go through your mind about then…I ran to the bathroom to see if she was there! Bathroom was empty! She was gone…she was 16 and missing! What happened, why had I not heard anything? Where was she? Was she ok?

As it turned out she had snuck out to a party and didn’t get back in time, before I was due to get up, and was scared to come home, so for 3 weeks I didn’t know where she was! I kept hearing from kids that had seen her, so I knew she was still alive at that particular moment. She even snuck INTO the house once when I was at work to heat up some chili rolls for lunch! I came home early cuz I could not get my mind on work and off the safety and welfare of my daughter. Her and her girlfriend booked, before I knew she was there. I walked in and the oven was on and I could smell the chili rolls.

The day before Thanksgiving a man called me and told me that her and her girlfriend were at his house with his daughter and that he thought I should know where she was on Thanksgiving! Thank God! Then I had to decide what to do! He said they were welcome there, but he didn’t want to get in trouble for having them there. I told him I would call him back! I really thought that she would just run again if I went and demanded that she come home, so after much thought and prayer, I called him back and told him that she could stay for the time being, but please keep me posted. That was the hardest Thanksgiving I ever spent! Knowing where she was and not being able to be with her!

I received another call from her friends father the day after Thanksgiving. he said he had heard talk of plans to take off again, and he thought I better come and get her! I told him I would be right there!

All the way over there, some 20 minutes away….I was thinking “What do I say, what do I do, do I force her to come home?” Again no instruction manual!

When I got there, and knocked on the door, no answer for awhile, then I hear murmering on the other side of the door! Finally the door opens a crack and there stands my 16 year old…half child/half woman, looking more like a little girl standing there in her jammies, wrapped up in a blanket, with the look of a scared animal! She says…”Hi Mom!” And we hugged. We stepped outside to talk…and then she went and got her stuff, and her girlfriend, who spent several weeks living at our house until her mom got out here to live (she had been staying with her Gramma). Needless to say, her girlfriend stayed in my daughter's bed, and Mel slept in my waterbed with me so I knew where she was!

Do you want to know how she turned out? Stay tuned for "The Rest of the Story"

posted by ...jus me at 9:22 AM 2 comments