Untitled

I'll just jump right into it.

Lily attends school about 4 miles from home. I pick her up sometimes. Last week I drove to school to do just that. I had Mason, Nora, and Mason's buddy Eli along with me. I let Mason and Eli sit in the way back seat so they could hang out on the way there. School pick-up is always a little crazy, but on this particular day it was a bit crazier than normal - but just a bit. Lily came out and saw that Eli was with us. But he was headed home, since I was meeting his mom there. Her friend McKenna, who is our carpool buddy, had a birthday party to go to, so she wasn't riding with us either. That, of course, called for a torrent of tears on Lily's part.

We moved forward though, with one [loudly] crying kindergartener, one baby attached at the hip, and two 3 year old boys bouncing all over the place. We made it out to the suburban and everyone loaded up, except Eli, who was climbing in his mom's car next to us. I crawled back and grabbed Eli's booster seat and gave it to his mom. Then McKenna's mom showed up in the parking lot. Apparently, there was a false alarm on the birthday party and she now had a crying 1st-grader. On top of that, her car was acting "wierd" and she was going to wait in said parking lot for her husband to come check out her car. I finally got in the car, with Lily still carrying on behind me and took off for home.

About a mile or so down the road, I looked in the rearview mirror. It looked like Mason was way slumped over in his seat, so I said, "Mase, what are you doing?" No answer.

"Mason. What are you doing?" No answer. And I couldn't see him at all.

"MASON. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Still no answer.

At this point, sobbing Lily turns around, sees that he is not in his booster, and screams, "MOM! He's not in here! We left him in the parking lot!!!"

"WHAT?! Are you SURE?!" I pull over and look back there myself and sure enough, he is NOT. THERE.

I whip the car around (well, as much as you can "whip" a ginormous vehicle) and speed back toward school.

Thoughts running through my mind at about 8000mph: What-have-I-done-where-is-he-where-is-he-where-is-he-I-bet-he's-wandering-around-crying-in-the-parking-lot-the-principal-is-going-to-think-I-am-nuts-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-why-do-I-have-3-kids-Lord-obviously-I-cannot-be-trusted-with-them-McKenna's-mom-is-still-in-the-parking-lot-maybe-he's-with-her.......................etc.

The mile takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r. We roar into the parking lot, I throw it in park and jump out. I yell at McKenna's mom at the playground, "Have you seen Mason???"

"No!" she replies, "He's not with you?!" and then she starts running my way.

For whatever reason, I went around to the back of the suburban and lift the window hatch thing.

There's my boy. Standing there. Smiling at me.

And that's why it's called Untitled. Because I have no words. The End.